On Dec. 4, 2005, plaintiff’s decedent, a 73-year-old retired woman, was a passenger in a Chevrolet automobile hauling a camper headed northbound on Interstate 81 near Roanoke, en route to New York. A Freightliner tractor, operated by the defendant and ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert P. Doherty Jr. Roanoke County Circuit Court Wrongful Death

The Supreme Court of Virginia handed down 18 decisions and two orders this morning. Full-text PDF copies of every case are also available on our Web site. Here are some of the highlights: A party can’t vouch for a decedent’s ...

Tagged with: Personal Injury Wills & Trusts Wrongful Death

This case involved various allegations of neglect that caused plaintiff’s decedent to develop a Stage 4 pressure ulcer on her sacrum. The pressure ulcer ultimately caused death by sepsis. Claims included survivorship, wrongful death and punitive damages. Defendants failed to ...

Tagged with: Wrongful Death

As the Town of Warrenton was constructing a new visitor center, a 19th-century cistern was uncovered just below ground level directly in front of the center’s front door. The town decided to preserve the cistern by building a 16-inch tall ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Premises Liability Wrongful Death

The case stemmed from a two-car accident on a residential street in Roanoke. Plaintiff’s decedent, a housewife, age 78, was alone in her car driving to the grocery store when she was struck head-on by a car driven by an ...

Tagged with: Million-Dollar Settlements Roanoke Circuit Court Wrongful Death

A Spotsylvania County family left the courthouse empty handed yesterday after a jury refused to blame animal control officers for the brutal dog mauling death of an 82-year-old woman. Represented by Charlottesville’s Tom Albro, the family contended that the county ...

Tagged with: Wrongful Death

The city of Chesapeake will pay $275,000 to resolve a family’s claim for a man killed by an animal control truck. According to witnesses, the animal control vehicle sped through an intersection as the light turned yellow, killing 65-year-old Norfolk ...

Tagged with: Wrongful Death

A wrongful death suit filed by a family member who had not yet qualified as a personal representative of the decedent is a nullity and cannot be nonsuited, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled. Because the wrongful death statute requires ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Supreme Court of Virginia Wrongful Death

The plaintiffs’ bar is the winner today in a case where the defense sought to force a plaintiff to elect between a personal injury claim and a wrongful death claim for the estate of a man who died after acquiring ...

Tagged with: Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia Wrongful Death

A divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld yesterday the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedures Virginia uses to execute inmates sentenced to death. The opinion, Emmett v. Johnson, had been watched closely because it was ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal U.S. Supreme Court Wrongful Death