Where appellee revoked a trust, of which two of her children were trustees, and a New York guardianship court found that appellee was not an incapacitated person, the Fairfax Circuit Court incorrectly ruled that the New York proceeding collaterally estopped ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

The trial court erred by retroactively applying a statute, which allows local authorities to erect war monuments and prevents such monuments from being moved or covered, to nullify appellant city’s measures to cover and move statues of Robert E. Lee ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the decedent’s will gave her son an option to purchase real estate devised to her three daughters at “fair market value” within one year of the probate of her will, the term “fair market value” is not a “sufficiently ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Real Estate Supreme Court of Virginia

Plaintiff taxpayers lack standing to challenge to challenge the local sheriff’s cooperation agreement with the federal government to enforce federal immigration laws. Their complaint does no more than identify a policy with which they disagree and then asserts that any ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

A county’s machinery and tool tax assessment was not valid where the county enacted a tax increase coupled with a tax relief program that operated as a partial tax emption for some taxpayers. Background International Paper owns a plant in ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia Taxation

Even though the family of a patient who died of surgery complications settled a Kentucky personal injury claim against providers in that state, the family can still sue Virginia providers in a Virginia court for wrongful death. The claim is ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Medical Malpractice Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though plaintiff settled wrongful death and personal injury claims against a medical defendant in Kentucky, that did not bar wrongful death and personal injury claims arising from the same injury against medical defendants in Virginia. Background Appellant Green is ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia

A county board of supervisors violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by improperly going into closed sessions, and by discussing matters than went beyond the scope of the stated reason for going into closed sessions. Background The Smyth-Bland Regional ...

Tagged with: FOIA Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

Where appellant claimed that deeds of sale her mother executed gave a 100 percent interest in the conveyed property to appellant, a 2015 final decree that voided the deeds precludes further litigation. We affirm the circuit court’s ruling that appellant ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

Virginia courts are taking a close look at questionable estate plans. A Virginia jury this month decided that a widow’s will – leaving the bulk of her estate to the lawyer who wrote her will – was procured through undue ...

Tagged with: Judge John M. Tran Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia News Wills & Trusts