The case of a nursing home patient raped by a staff member split the Supreme Court of Virginia in its position on vicarious liability. The justices largely agree that an employer’s liability under the doctrine of respondeat superior is best ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Criminal Judge Cheryl V. Higgins Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia News

A Loudoun County couple that displayed strings of holiday lights around the clock for at least 300 days a year has won their court battle with a neighborhood homeowners association that sought more than $40,000 in fines, fees and costs. ...

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

The Supreme Court of Virginia has recognized a church’s “special relationship” duty to protect children from a known dangerous employee. The new opinion also offers a host of guidance in other aspects of pleading a case. The decision builds on ...

Tagged with: Criminal Employment Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Supreme Court of Virginia News

Plaintiff , a young sexual abuse victim, has adequately pleaded that there was a special relationship between her and defendants, a local church and its national denomination, which created a duty to protect her from a church deacon who defendants ...

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

Temporary continuing workers’ compensation benefits for a total disability were properly suspended in a case where the claimant was partially disabled due to a work-related injury and became totally disabled due to kidney failure that was unrelated to his work. ...

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

A Virginia judge – appalled over damning evidence in a defamation case – allowed a $500,000 verdict against a school superintendent to stand, despite the acknowledged absence of a key legal foundation. Now the Supreme Court of Virginia has reversed ...

Tagged with: Judge Martin F. Clark Jr. Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia News

Where a school board disciplined a student for nonconsensual sexual touching of three other students, the circuit court erred by vacating the board’s decision. The circuit court misapplied governing legal standards and misinterpreted the record of the disciplinary proceedings, rules ...

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

In a case of a two-pronged payback, a man who shot a pair of road-rage assailants and then sued the one who survived may have to try his damages case again in Richmond Circuit Court. Four justices of the Supreme ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Supreme Court of Virginia News

The Supreme Court of Virginia, by a 4-3 vote, has deferred to a trial judge who allowed a juror to remain trial-eligible, despite the man’s expressed doubts about the fairness of medical malpractice litigation. The decision leaves in place a ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Judge Joi Jeter-Taylor Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia News

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Fourth Amendment’s automobile exception does not permit a police officer who lacks a warrant or an invitation to enter a home’s curtilage to search a parked vehicle, evidence seized under those ...

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