The circuit court correctly upheld the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ amendment of the county’s zoning ordinance, and the imposition of a two percent lodging tax on short-term rentals of residential homes. Zoning amendments Appellants (hosts) are a group of ...

Tagged with: Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia Taxation

Where appellant was convicted of sex crimes, including custodial sexual abuse, involving a 7-year-old child, “child pornography titles” found on his computer were properly admitted as evidence. The probative value of this evidence regarding “conduct or attitude towards the victim, ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia

A board of county supervisors lacked authority to dissolve an emergency medical service’s corporate status and distribute its assets. The service was a private nonstock corporation, rather than being established under the statute granting the county board the power to ...

Tagged with: Corporations Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia

Where appellant sought a partition of a home she and her siblings inherited, the trial court correctly ruled that she could not obtain an attorney’s fee under the partition statute from her unrepresented siblings. Background In 2012, despite their deceased ...

Tagged with: Justice Cleo E. Powell Real Estate Supreme Court of Virginia

Where a school bus driver and a bus aide assaulted a special needs student while he harnessed to a bus seat, no uninsured motorist coverage is due from a policy defendant issued to the student’s mother. There was no causal ...

Tagged with: Contract Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia

Where a woman sitting in a car was struck and killed by one of four shots appellant fired down a city street without justification, the necessary malice to sustain a second-degree murder conviction is implied by appellant’s actions. “The concept ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia

George Mason University Foundation, a private, nonprofit corporation that raises funds and manages donations to George Mason University, is not subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Overview Appellant, Transparent GMU, filed a VFOIA request with GMU and the ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia

Evidence of the probability that appellant’s farmland would be rezoned for commercial use was admissible in this condemnation case to determine the compensation due for land taken to construct a highway interchange. Background The highway commission sought to take a ...

Tagged with: Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Justice Stephen R. McCullough Real Estate Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia offers a tutorial on Batson challenges to jury strikes while affirming a first-degree murder conviction in a case decided last month. The justices split 5-2 on whether a prosecutor’s race-neutral explanation for striking a juror ...

Tagged with: Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia News

Lawyers need to choose their medical experts with care. That’s a key lesson from a new Supreme Court of Virginia decision, one lawyer said. The justices refused to overturn a patient’s verdict even though the jury was told that a ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice Stephen R. McCullough Legal Experts Supreme Court of Virginia News