Where the circuit court sua sponte dismissed plaintiff’s personal injury case with prejudice after counsel informed the court and opposing counsel that he was too ill to appear for trial, the court abused its discretion by denying plaintiff’s motion for ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

A two-year statute of limitations bars a condominium association’s claims that former directors breached fiduciary duties, and conspired to do so, by failing to levy sufficient assessments to maintain reasonable reserve and operating accounts during their tenure. Further, the statute ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

The circuit court correctly sanctioned petitioner because its challenge to an order “was not well grounded in fact and warranted by existing law or a good faith argument” to extend, modify or reverse existing law. But the court’s $20,000 sanction ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

A defendant is not entitled to relief from mandatory three-year minimum sentences for his  convictions of cocaine distribution offenses because the evidence showed he possessed a firearm during the time that controlled buys were made at his home. Overview Under ...

Tagged with: Criminal Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

A five-year sentence for using a firearm in the commission of a felony is void ab initio because the applicable statute provides for a three-year sentence. Defendant is entitled to resentencing. Resentencing Custis was convicted of robbery, being felon in ...

Tagged with: Criminal Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia lacks appellate jurisdiction to review a circuit court’s determination that a defendant found incompetent in 2005 to stand trial on murder charges must continue to receive in-patient treatment in an effort to restore his competency. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

The government was denied rehearing as to a habeas petitioner, previously granted permission to seek relief under the savings clause contained in 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Statement respecting denial (Agee, J.) The issues in this case are of significant national ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Published Order Sentencing

A defendant’s intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill could be inferred solely from the act of pistol-whipping his victim before stealing the victim’s money. Background On March 4, 2014, Otis White Jr. went to visit Appellee Marquez Perkins’s mother, ...

Tagged with: Criminal Evidence Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia

In this suit by a transgender boy who challenged his North Carolina high school’s policy requiring students to use bathrooms designated for their biological genders, the 4th Circuit remands this case, on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, back to ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Published Order

The Supreme Court of Virginia imposes a prefiling injunction against an appellant who has filed and appealed rulings in numerous frivolous lawsuits against service-industry defendants in Northern Virginia; appellant is prohibited from filing any petition for appeal, motion, pleading or ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Published Order Supreme Court of Virginia