John S. Koehler
- Nov 30, 2022
- 5 min
Halloween in November? Court of Appeals decides Cemetery Access Case, two other appeals
Well, it's almost the end of November, but we get a spooky little opinion from the Court of Appeals today as one of three published opinions. Let's start with Wintergreen Homestead, LLC. et al. v. Bettie W. Pennington, et al. which comes from the pen (or word processor) of Judge Fulton writing for himself, Judge Ortiz and Sr. Judge Petty. Befitting the grave subject matter, Judge Fulton's well considered prose begins with this observation: "For over two centuries, members o
John S. Koehler
- Nov 27, 2022
- 5 min
Stats and Icarus Index for January 2022 Cases
Back in July, I announced that I would be posting stats on the filings in the Court of Appeals including the "Icarus Index" -- an attempt to come up with a comparable way of measuring the success of appellants similar to Steve Emmert's David-and-Goliath Index for the Supreme Court of Virginia. Although the Court of Appeals has begun issuing opinion from the 2022 docket, the data for these is still fairly sparse. However, as I have completed updating the status of all the app
John S. Koehler
- Nov 23, 2022
- 8 min
Four Opinions and one En Banc Grant
The Court of Appeals released four published opinions today, and also announced the grant of rehearing en banc. Let's start with the en banc grant because, frankly, it's a bit of a surprise. The case is Osman v. Commonwealth, and the opinion was released just four weeks ago. I summarized the case in one of the "catch-up posts" following the transition to the new website. If you don't want to go back and read that post, let me summarize the summary: Osman was estranged from
John S. Koehler
- Nov 16, 2022
- 6 min
Four Appeals from the Court of Appeals
The Court of Appeals issued two opinions last week, but a day later than usual owing to the election day holiday, and issued two more today. The most noteworthy of these is Jordan Heath Joyce v. Botetourt County Department of Social Services. It is noteworthy on two grounds: First, it is a reversal of a termination of parental rights -- a rare occurrence; second, the party whose rights were improperly terminated was the child's father, which is also rare as, tragically, in
John S. Koehler
- Nov 9, 2022
- 3 min
Two Appeals from last week . . . neither one in a criminal matter
The Court of Appeals broke a long string of issuing cases only in criminal matters (assuming you count the expungement decision from mid-October as a criminal matter), and issues two opinions, one in a Worker's Comp case and (drum roll please) one in a civil cases that is not from a domestic relations case. As the Sage of Virginia Beach correctly points out, this is the first published decision from such as case since the Court of Appeals started hearing these former Supreme
John S. Koehler
- Nov 9, 2022
- 2 min
One more opinion from October . . . and it's a victory for the defendant perhaps (well, sort of).
The last published opinion issued in October by the Court of Appeals is Osman Osman v. Commonwealth of Virginia. Osman was convicted by a jury in Fairfax County Circuit Court of four counts involving violations of a protective order, two counts of felony abduction, and one count of misdemeanor domestic assault against a family member. As you can probably guess, this case arises from a domestic situation. Osman's estranged wife obtained a protective order for her and the coup
John S. Koehler
- Nov 9, 2022
- 5 min
Two New Opinions from the Court of Appeals on October 18, 2022
Still playing catch-up, we have two new opinions from October 18, 2022 from the Court of Appeals. Anthony Patrick Washington v. Commonwealth of Virginia arises from an aggravated malicious wounding conviction and a related firearms cahrge. Washington challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction, and more specifically the evidence that he acted with malice rather than in the heat of passion. The facts of the case are very perplexing, as the opinion do
John S. Koehler
- Nov 9, 2022
- 2 min
October 11, 2022 Opinion from the Court of Appeals
The Court of Appeals issued a single opinion on October 11, 2022, reversing and remanding in Alejandra Isabel Obregon v. Commonwealth of Virginia. Before you get all excited about the reversal in a criminal appeal . . . this isn't one. The style of the case is the same as the underlying criminal case at issue, but this is not an appeal of that judgment, but rather an appeal of the denial of a petition to have the record of that case expunged. Expungement is governed by Code
John S. Koehler
- Nov 1, 2022
- 3 min
Two More Appeals -- October 4, 2022 Opinions of the Court of Appeals
And we are now into October as the Court of Appeals of Virginia Blawg plays catch-up after its hiatus and move to its new home. Danjuan Antonio McBride must have thought he was going to skate by on two counts of possessing a controlled substance with the intent to distribute when the trial court granted his motion to strike the evidence. Then the circuit court did something extraordinary -- it permitted the Commonwealth to reopen its case an present additional evidence, afte
John S. Koehler
- Nov 1, 2022
- 4 min
Court of Appeals Opinions from September 27, 2022
As the Blawg continues to play catch-up, we have two more criminal appeals from the Court of Appeals, these having been issued on September 27, 2023. Jason Harris v. Commonwealth involves the problem of screening a member of the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office who was previously in private practice when a former client once again finds himself the object of a criminal prosecution. As a general rule, the so called "Chinese Wall" method of dealing with conflicts is not allowe