The circuit court incorrectly ruled that respondent property owners who paid property taxes for more than 15 years acquired a vested right to continue their illegal use of two buildings. Code § 15.2-2307(D) provides that buildings or structures may not ...

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

Petitioner’s motion for nonsuit of his writ of actual innocence is denied because such writs are criminal matters to which the nonsuit statute does not apply. Further, the writ, based on results from DNA testing, will be dismissed. The test ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Criminal Supreme Court of Virginia

A 1978 amendment to Virginia’s larceny by check statute was intended to include, rather than limit, its application to passing a bad check to pay for goods and services. Code § 18.2-181 is best understood to apply when a check ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. Supreme Court of Virginia

A prison inmate diagnosed with gender dysphoria and who is transitioning from male to female identity is entitled to on-the-merits consideration of an application to change her name. The circuit court’s determination that there was not “good cause” to consider ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though words alone are insufficient provocation to reduce murder to manslaughter, defendant cannot challenge her voluntary manslaughter conviction on this basis because she approved jury instructions that omitted this legal principle, says the Virginia Supreme Court. Defendant waived her ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Criminal Supreme Court of Virginia

The circuit court’s ruling that a prison inmate’s future suits would be reviewed and subject to summary dismissal before being served is reversed because the court did not complete the analysis required by Adkins v. CP/IPERS Arlington Hotel LLC, 293 ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though a dog in appellant’s custody may have begun to attack a neighbor’s dog while on appellant’s property, the circuit court correctly ruled that the dangerous dog statute’s safe harbor provision does not apply. There was sufficient evidence to ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though a widow’s suit for an elective share of her husband’s estate was served on the personal representative, the failure to name the personal representative as a defendant or otherwise mention her in the complaint made the suit a ...

Tagged with: Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

Where the testator’s will left everything to his niece, his daughter was entitled to a presumption of undue influence but the presumption disappeared once the niece provided sufficient evidence to rebut it. As a result, the burden of persuasion remained ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Supreme Court of Virginia Wills & Trusts

Where the decedent rear-ended the plaintiff’s car, his description of the accident to his son  was correctly admitted under the dead man’s statute. The fact that the decedent’s passenger testified about the crash at trial has no bearing on the ...

Tagged with: Evidence Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia