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 Jury Issue Out of Chancery.  For more information on juries see the pages on Wikipedia.

Jury Issue out of Chancery-Cases

1997 Angstadt v. Atlantic Mut. Ins. Co., 254 Va. 286, 492 S.E.2d 118.

In this declaratory judgment action brought by insurance carrier, carrier asked for jury issue out of chancery. Defendant could have filed plea in equity which raises single issue which, if proved, constitutes absolute defense to suit. With plea in equity, jury verdict is binding and conclusive. Whereas with issue out of chancery, jury verdict is simply advisory. In this case trial court chose not to accept jury verdict and entered judgment in favor of insurance carrier finding lack of cooperation by insured. Issue in this case was whether insured willfully failed to cooperate. Trial court found that insured did willfully fail to cooperate when he had been advised on more than one occasion of need to appear for deposition on certain date and time pursuant to court order and he failed to appear without excuse. Coverage denied.

1992 Bowers v. Westvaco Corp., 244 Va. 139, 419 S.E.2d 661.

As to issue out of chancery, jury verdict is purely advisory.