Where appellant presented a note to a store clerk “demanding money or her life[,]”and then put her hand in her pocket, there was sufficient evidence for a jury to find that the bulge in the robber’s pocket was a gun. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice Thomas P. Mann Supreme Court of Virginia

The circuit court incorrectly ruled that appellant homeowners lacked standing to pursue claims arising from a rezoning granted by a county board of supervisors to a supermarket chain so that it could build a warehouse and distribution center near appellant’s ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Real Estate Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia has reversed a trial court’s decision closing a pretrial bail hearing to the public and sealing records in the case of a Newport News police officer indicted for murder. The plaintiff newspaper publishers claimed the ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the State Corporation Commission approved Virginia Electric and Power’s petition to recover from its customers the cost of purchasing “allowances” to emit CO2 from its power plants, there was no error because the allowances were necessary to comply with ...

Tagged with: Administrative Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the trial court closed a pretrial bail hearing to the public, kept certain motions and exhibits under seal, and ruled that a city lacked standing to oppose public access to sealed documents previously disclosed pursuant to a subpoena, the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the circuit court ruled that appellant was the third-party beneficiary of a long-term ground lease but appellant and appellee did not agree what rights appellant acquired, the court erred by dismissing the case without resolving the issue. Statement of ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

Where an electric power company recorded its costs related to the early retirement of several coal-fired electricity generating plants as asset impairments, the State Corporation Commission erred by concluding that it was unreasonable for the power company to do so. ...

Tagged with: Administrative Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

Appellant’s argument that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to order him to serve the balance of a previously suspended sentence after a probation violation is not well-taken. Appellant argues that jurisdiction was lacking because the sentence suspension period lapsed before ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed a lower court’s ruling concluding that a doctor who treated inmates in a Virginia correctional center was protected by derivative sovereign immunity. The state’s high court also granted the doctor’s demurrer to a gross ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Sovereign Immunity Supreme Court of Virginia

Where a city hired a doctor to provide medical care to inmates in the city’s detention center, the doctor has derivative sovereign immunity and cannot be sued for malpractice by a deceased inmate’s estate. Background Patterson was an inmate in ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Medical Malpractice Supreme Court of Virginia