SEARCH SITE

VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

ACROSS SESSIONS

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2020 SESSION

  • print version
Senate Committee on Judiciary
Subcommittee Civil Law

Petersen (Chair), Lucas, Norment, Obenshain, Chafin, McClellan, Boysko

Clerk: John Garrett, Alec Fischbein
Staff: Kristen Walsh, C. Quagliato
Date of Meeting: January 27, 2020
Time and Place: 4 PM Subcommittee Room 3 5th Floor Pocahontas Building
Added SBs 31, 308, 693

S.B. 28

Patron: Petersen

Eminent domain; costs. Eliminates specific provisions for the assessment of costs in eminent domain proceedings where the condemnor is a public service company, public service corporation, railroad, or government utility corporation and provides that all costs shall be assessed in the same manner, regardless of the identity of the condemnor.

S.B. 31

Patron: Petersen

Eminent domain; costs for petition for distribution of funds; interest rate; recordation of certificate. Provides that the costs of filing a petition with the court for the distribution of the funds due pursuant to an eminent domain proceeding shall be taxed against the condemnor. The bill also provides that the interest rate on the funds represented by a certificate of deposit from the date of filing of the certificate until the funds are paid into the court shall not be less than the judgment rate of interest. Finally, the bill reorganizes for clarity the provisions governing what happens upon recordation of a certificate by the Commissioner of Highways in a condemnation proceeding.

S.B. 208

Patron: Petersen

Mechanics' liens; right to withhold payment. Specifies that the use of funds paid to a general contractor or subcontractor and used by such contractor or subcontractor before paying all amounts due for labor performed or material furnished gives rise to a civil cause of action for a party who is owed such funds. The bill further specifies that such cause of action does not affect a contractor's or subcontractor's right to withhold payment for failure to properly perform labor or furnish materials and that any contractual provision that allows a party to withhold funds due on one contract for alleged claims or damages due on another contract is void as against public policy.

S.B. 229

Patron: Petersen

Signature defects on pleadings, motions, and other papers. Clarifies that any pleading, motion, or other paper that is not properly signed is defective and voidable. The bill further provides that failure to timely raise signature defects waives any challenge based on such a defect, and that a signature defect shall be cured within 21 days after it is brought to the attention of the pleader or movant, or the pleading, motion, or other paper that contains the signature defect shall be stricken.

S.B. 253

Patron: Chafin

Deeds of trust; fiduciary duties. Specifies that a trustee under a deed of trust has only the duties, rights, and obligations imposed and conferred on it by the deed of trust or by statute. This bill is in response to Crosby v. ALG Trustee, LLC, 296 Va. 561 (2018).

S.B. 261

Patron: Chafin

Accounts filed by fiduciaries and reports filed by guardians; penalty. Provides that any account filed by a fiduciary with the commissioner of accounts and annual report filed by a guardian with the local department of social services shall be signed under oath and that the punishment for making a false statement or entry in such a filing is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

S.B. 285

Patron: Deeds

Bystander claims for intentional or negligent infliction of injury or death; emotional distress. Provides that a bystander who witnesses, live and in-person, an event during which the intentional or negligent infliction of injury to or death of a victim occurs may recover damages for resulting emotional distress, proven by a preponderance of the evidence, with or without a physical impact or physical injury to the bystander, if (i) the bystander is related to the victim or (ii) although not related to the victim, the bystander is in close proximity to the victim at the time the event occurs and is aware that such event is causing injury to or the death of the victim.

S.B. 308

Patron: Stanley

Accounts filed by fiduciaries and reports filed by guardians; perjury; penalty. Provides that any account filed by a fiduciary with the commissioner of accounts and annual report filed by a guardian with the local department of social services shall be signed under oath under penalty of perjury, the punishment for which is a Class 5 felony. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Criminal Justice Conference.

S.B. 429

Patron: Surovell

Withholding of income for child support; independent contractors. Clarifies that income earned by an independent contractor may be withheld by court order for payment of child support obligations.

S.B. 485

Patron: DeSteph

Eminent domain; remnants and remainders. Repeals the provision of the Code of Virginia declaring that the acquisition of residual parcels when acquiring land for highway rights-of-way is in the public interest and is a public use. The bill provides a property owner with the ability to decide whether acquisition would create an uneconomic remnant or whether the damage to the remainder of a piece of acquired property would equal or exceed the fair market value of the remaining land.

S.B. 545

Patron: Edwards

Appeals of right in general district court; order or judgment altering prior final orders or judgments; separate notices of appeal. Provides that there shall be an appeal of right to a court of record from any order entered or judgment rendered in a general district court that alters, amends, overturns, or vacates any prior final order entered or judgment rendered on any issues previously adjudicated on the merits in the prior proceeding. The bill further provides that a party to an action in general district court may file a separate notice of appeal relating to any other final order or judgment entered in an action by filing a notice of appeal within the 10-day appeal of right time period, or within five business days after such notice of appeal is filed, whichever is later.

S.B. 659

Patron: Surovell

Contributory negligence; motor vehicle accident involving a pedestrian, bicyclist, etc. Provides that the negligence of a pedestrian, bicyclist, or other person lawfully using a device other than a motor vehicle on a public highway who is involved in a collision with a motor vehicle shall not bar a plaintiff's recovery in any civil action unless the plaintiff's negligence is (i) a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury and (ii) greater than the aggregated total amount of negligence of all the defendants that proximately caused the plaintiff's injury.

S.B. 661

Patron: Surovell

Accrual of cause of action; diagnoses of nonmalignant and malignant asbestos-related injury or disease. Provides that a diagnosis of a nonmalignant asbestos-related injury or disease shall not be deemed an accrual of an action based upon a later diagnosis of a malignant asbestos-related injury or disease and that a cause of action for an asbestos-related malignancy shall accrue when the malignant asbestos-related disease or injury is first communicated to the person or his agent by a physician.

S.B. 693

Patron: Obenshain

Common-law defense of intra-family immunity; abolished in certain cases. Abolishes the common-law defense of intra-family immunity for wrongful death actions that accrue on or after July 1, 2020.

S.B. 872

Patron: Marsden

Appointment of a guardian ad litem; court-ordered custody and visitation arrangements; best interests of a child; appointment in circuit or district court. Provides that the court may appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the best interests of a child in any case in which the custody or visitation of a child is at issue, regardless of whether the case is in a circuit or district court.

S.B. 920

Patron: Peake

Surrogacy contracts; provisions requiring abortion or selective reduction unenforceable. Provides that any provision of a surrogacy contract requiring an abortion or selective reduction is against the public policy of the Commonwealth and is void and unenforceable.

S.B. 951

Patron: Obenshain

Eminent domain; written offer to purchase property. Requires a condemnor's written offer to purchase property prior to instituting a condemnation proceeding, and its written statement of the amount established as just compensation, to be on such condemnor's letterhead and signed by an authorized employee of such condemnor.

S.B. 967

Patron: Cosgrove

Eminent domain; notice of intent to file certificate. Provides that the notice required to be sent to a landowner prior to an authorized condemnor recording a certificate of take or certificate of deposit shall state that (i) the certificate of take or certificate of deposit will be recorded between 30 and 45 days from the date of the notice and (ii) that the property will transfer to the condemnor upon recordation and that the owner has the right to petition the court to take possession of the funds represented in the certificate.

S.B. 1043

Patron: Surovell

Civil actions filed on behalf of multiple persons. Provides that a circuit court may enter an order joining, coordinating, consolidating, or transferring civil actions upon finding that separate civil actions brought by a plaintiff on behalf of multiple similarly situated persons involve common questions of law or fact and arise out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences. Under current law, such order is permitted only where six or more plaintiffs have filed such actions.