Tort Law

This page within Virginia Tort Case Law is a compilation of cases reported by the Virginia Supreme Court and summarized by Brien Roche dealing with the topic of the record on appeal or Appeal Record and the related topic of personal injury.   For more information on appeals see the page on Wikipedia.

Appeal Record-Cases

2010 Shapiro v. Younkin, 279 Va. 256, 688 S.E.2d 157.
Trial court improperly dismissed case because plaintiff did not have court reporter present in contravention of local rule. In addition, trial court must make an affirmative attempt to create a record for appellate review that contains a fair statement of the facts by making reasonable additions, deletions, or changes to the proffered state- ment of facts.

2004 Rose v. Jaques, 268 Va. 137, 597 S.E.2d 64.
Defendant sought to offer surveillance videos showing plaintiff performing task that he stated she could not perform. Defendant however failed to have the videos included a part of the appeal record and as such, the issue cannot be considered.

1995 White v. Morano, 249 Va. 27, 452 S.E.2d 856.
Legal malpractice action wherein fifteen witnesses were called. Plaintiff submitted proposed statement of facts in support of appeal. Defendant objected. Trial court indicated it could not comply with rule as to statement of facts because of insufficient recall as to testimony provided. In this case, court reporter was present and there was no indication of effort by plaintiff to obtain partial transcript or to obtain notes of court reporter. Burden is on appellant to obtain proper narrative of testimony presented for appeal record.

1987 Wilcox v. Lauterbach Elec. Co., 233 Va. 416, 357 S.E.2d 197.
Order of nonsuit is not final judgment, just the opposite. No appeal lies therefrom. Failure of appellant to comply with Rule 5:32(d) is not grounds for dismissal if appellant includes in his appendix everything germane to disposition of his appeal and appellee has not been prejudiced.

1985 Crawford v. United Steel Workers, 230 Va. 217, 335 S.E.2d 828.
Certain matters were not mentioned in oral argument and counsel did not rely on his brief with regard to them, and therefore Supreme Court will not consider them.

1980 Penn v. Manns, 221 Va. 88, 267 S.E.2d 126.
Objection raised in trial court, waived when not argued before Supreme Court or permission to rely on brief not requested. Plaintiff submitted issues of negligence and causation to jury through instructions and cannot now complain of jury verdict adverse to her.

1974 Vaughan v. Johnson, 215 Va. 323, 210 S.E.2d 139.
Since appeal record is silent as to facts, evidence cannot be reviewed. Trial court’s ruling on law and facts presumed to be correct.

1967 Cook v. Virginia Holsum Bakeries, Inc., 207 Va. 815, 153 S.E.2d 209.
Narrative statement proper as appellee had been given reasonable opportunity to examine statement required by Supreme Court Rule 5:1.

1966 Woods v. R.D. Hunt & Son, 207 Va. 281, 148 S.E.2d 779.
Transcript made by reporter; not available six weeks after trial. Appellant offered narrative statement to appellee; appellee refused to sign. Refusal justified; court could require appealing party to provide so much of transcript as was necessary to be assured what was to be certified was authentic.

1962 Frye v. Alford, 203 Va. 461, 125 S.E.2d 177.
Failure to designate material evidence is not basis for dismissing appeal since appellee could have designated.

1958 Rountree v. Rountree, 200 Va. 57, 104 S.E.2d 42.
Extrinsic evidence will not be accepted by Supreme Court to contradict or supplement appeal record

1956 Hall v. Miles, 197 Va. 644, 90 S.E.2d 815.
Everything germane to error assigned on appeal should be designated for printing, so that printed appeal record will contain everything essential to determine whether error was committed.