Where the parties disputed who was driving a tractor-trailer that left the road and crashed, killing both occupants, the trial court correctly excluded experts’ identity evidence and certain medical evidence about one of the occupants. The court also correctly refused ...

Tagged with: Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia

With an explicit declaration that money losses are not a mandatory basis for mental anguish damages, the Supreme Court of Virginia has affirmed a $250,000 racial harassment verdict against a Northern Virginia home renovation business and its owner. The defendants ...

Tagged with: Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Racial harassment Supreme Court of Virginia Verdict

Appellant’s conviction for defrauding a restaurant is reversed because the applicable statute requires that a person have the intent to defraud when the “food is obtained,” and there is no evidence that appellant intended to defraud the hotel when she ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Supreme Court of Virginia

Where appellant made a stolen check payable to herself, forged the check owner’s signature, used her own driver’s license as identification but left the bank before completing the transaction, she was properly charged with attempted identity theft. Identifying information “Code ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Supreme Court of Virginia

Defendant’s actions while seated in his car – digging between and beneath the seats and behind him with his hands – gave police a reasonable suspicion that he was reaching for a weapon, which justified removing defendant from his car ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

John Doe, 24, was scheduled for elective gall bladder removal. Due to morbid obesity, a sleep study had been ordered to check for sleep apnea. Surgery was scheduled without the sleep apnea results. The plan was for an overnight admission ...

Tagged with: Judge Joanna Fitzpatrick Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Medical Malpractice Million-Dollar Settlements

A defendant who filed a motion to avoid a mandatory minimum sentence shortly before his sentencing hearing began was entitled to have the circuit court consider it on the merits. The court’s refusal to do so because the motion was ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Supreme Court of Virginia

A woman who washed her father’s asbestos-laden clothes after he returned home after working in a shipyard may sue the shipyard for asbestos exposure. Background Plaintiff alleges that from approximately 1942 to 1977, Wanda Quisenberry’s father, Bennie Plessinger, was employed ...

Tagged with: Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Negligence Supreme Court of Virginia

A divided Supreme Court says Virginia will allow a lawsuit against a shipyard over the cancer death of a woman allegedly exposed to asbestos brought home by her shipworker father. The 4-3 decision on Oct. 11 “reshapes tort law” according ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr.

A board of zoning appeals was not precluded from reconsideration of a variance request previously brought under different statutory provisions, the court held. In 2006, Plaintiff Debra Chilton-Belloni and her husband sought approval to build a wall on their property ...

Tagged with: Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Supreme Court of Virginia Zoning