Today I read an opinion from the Court of Appeals in Henderson v. McCain, decided on the issue of res judicata. One of the issues was whether the defendant could meet its burden of proof without any more evidence than a memorandum opinion from the prior case, decided in federal court, and specifically without a copy of the separate final judgment. Part of the opinion went like this: "The gravamen of Henderson’s argument is that for a circuit court to find sufficient evidence of a final judgment to sustain a plea in bar on grounds of res judicata, the record before the court must contain a copy ..read more

I saw in Virginia Lawyers Weekly that the Virginia State Bar is being asked to assess candidates for the vacancy on the Court of Appeals of Virginia that is being created by the retirement of Judge Robert Humphreys. Years ago, I got to meet Judge Humphreys at the Appalachian School of Law when there was some moot court event and I was a last minute substitute for someone else on the panel of moot court judges. Judge Humphreys is delightful. He made me believe that he loved his job on the court of appeals. In more recent years, I appeared before panels that included him a couple of times and ha ..read more

 I see here that former Magistrate Judge Waugh Crigler has passed away. Judge Crigler was a ball of fire as a teacher, a mediator, and a judge, and it was a great pleasure to have heard him speak and gotten to known him even a little bit. And, he was a Tennessee Vol ..read more

In January, my good friend Howard McElroy passed away. On Facebook, I wrote this: Howard McElroy was like a profane guardian angel who watched over my career and the rest of my life for over 30 years. I felt his support all that time even though I was way down on the long list of people for whom he did the same thing.   Howard decided from day one that I was a bit of a social misfit and that he would help me. He knew, as our mutual friend John Epps once told him, that "Steve Minor is an acquired taste," and so he ran interference, making connections and introductions. Among other thin ..read more

Today in Com. v. Barney, the majority of the Supreme Court of Virginia upheld the conviction of the defendant for use of a firearm in a bank robbery, when the Commonwealth's evidence showed only that she threatened to kill the bank teller and kept her hand in her pocket. Justice Mann, joined by the Chief Justice and Senior Justice Mims, concluded that the evidence was not enough ..read more

In today's opinion about fees, both the majority and the dissent seemed to be looking the wrong way in wrestling with the argument about when are fees are "incurred" for purposes of Va. Code 8.01-271.1.  The majority relies in part on the fact that "[h]ere, the lawyers were not working for free." The dissent concludes that fees not paid for are not fee incurred. But many times there are litigants who would not have a lawyer unless the lawyer would take the case for free, or with the expectation of statutory fees. In one of my cases, the appellant argued that the appellee was not entitled ..read more

I learned today from Steve Emmert by way of Paul Fletcher that Justice William Mims has announced his plans to retire from the Supreme Court of Virginia in a few months. Justice Mims laughed out loud at my foolishness the last time I was before the Court. Years ago, we sat at the same table for a VBA banquet, and I spoke with him a little bit. My favorite story about him is one I read in Lawyers Weekly, in which he supposedly said that he stopped writing lengthy concurring opinions after someone in his family pointed out to him that there has never been an appellate jurist known as 'the Great ..read more

Earlier this week I appeared before Judge Fred Rowlett who was sworn in two years ago, joining Circuit Judge Randy Lowe, Juvenile Judge Florence Powell, Bankruptcy Judge Trish Brown, ALJ Linda Howell, Magistrate Judge Cynthia Eddy, Circuit Judge John Kilgore, and Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kinser, among those who clerked for him and became judges themselves. The last of our law clerk reunions with him was eleven years ago this week, which was the only time Jill got to meet him ..read more

Years ago my friend Howard McElroy got me on the Board of The Virginia Bar Association. I went to all the meetings from 2006-2010, and stopped by many of them in the years 2010-2016, and every one of those I hung out for at least a bit with Brenda Dillard, who organized the meetings, but she always made time for me. In the last few years I kept up with her by message and text, and a couple of years ago she told me about her illness, and I was afraid every time that I heard from her would be the last time, and so if nothing else she knew how much I have enjoyed being her friend, because I told ..read more

With interest I listened to the arguments and read the opinion in Padula-Wilson v. Landry. In an opinion by Justice McCullough, the Court affirmed the dismissal of Ms. Wilson's claims of tortious interference with parental rights against the various professionals who got sucked into her custody litigation. She sued her children's guardian ad litem and the various therapists and counselors who gave opinions about her and her children for $16 million on various theories, but only the tortious interference claim and one of the defamation claims went to the Supreme Court. In the Circuit Court, th ..read more