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Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 2001-2002), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added or amended a number of sections of the Virginia Code in its 2002 Session. In addition, there were ten Supreme Court of Virginia opinions and two United States District Court opinions raising issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates during the period covered by this review. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 2000-2001), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added or amended a number of sections of the Virginia Code in its 2001 Session. In addition, one Supreme Court of Virginia opinion and three Virginia Circuit Court opinions raised issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates during the period covered by this review. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1999-2000), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

In its 2000 Session, the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Virginia Code. It also carried over one significant bill to the 2001 Session. In addition, there were nine Supreme Court of Virginia opinions, one United States District Court opinion, two Virginia Circuit Court opinions, and one Attorney General's opinion raising issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates during the period covered by this review. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial …

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1998-99), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

In its 1999 Session, the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia in its 1999 Session. In addition, there were eleven Supreme Court of Virginia opinions and one Bankruptcy Court opinion in the period covered by this review that involved issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

The Imminent Demise Of Interspousal Tort Immunity, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

During the decade of the 1980s, I extensively explored the doctrine of interspousal tort immunity in the United States. I examined the origins and development of the concept; how the notion survived intact in every jurisdiction throughout the nation until 1914; the first successful efforts to abolish immunity during the teens; the slow pace of abrogation in the five decades between 1920 and 1970; and the steady decline of the doctrine thereafter. Indeed, only a small number of states in the country still retain any form of interspousal tort immunity, even though some jurisdictions evince concern about certain issues involving …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Administrative Procedure, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

Since the last report on developments in Virginia's law of administrative procedure,' both her General Assembly and her courts have been busy making new law. This year's General Assembly revamped the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), and made adjustments to laws regulating the periods in which agencies must decide certain types of licensing cases and promulgate certain procedural regulations. Meanwhile, the courts of the Commonwealth were active in the field, addressing open questions concerning the following subjects: rulemaking, due process, evidence, timeliness, and judicial review.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1995-97), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia in the 1996 and 1997 sessions. In addition, there were eleven Supreme Court of Virginia opinions in the two-year period ending April 18, 1997, that involved issues of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article reports on all of these legislative and judicial developments.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1994-95), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1995 Session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia. In addition to this legislation, there were five Supreme Court of Virginia opinions and one Fourth Circuit opinion in the year ending June 1, 1995 that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1990-91), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1991 session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia ("Code"). In addition to this legislation, there were six cases from the Supreme Court of Virginia and one from the Virginia Court of Appeals, in the year ending June 1, 1991, which involve issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1989-90), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1990 session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia (the "Code"). In addition to this legislation, there were fifteen cases from the Supreme Court of Virginia, in the year ending June 1, 1990, which involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1988-89), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1989 session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia (the "Code"). In addition to this legislation, there were twelve cases from the Supreme Court of Virginia, one case from Virginia's intermediate court of appeals, and one federal case in the year ending June 1, 1989, that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1987-88), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1988 session of the General Assembly enacted legislation dealing with wills, trusts, and estates that added, amended, or repealed a number of sections of the Code of Virginia (the Code). In addition to this legislation, there were six cases from the Virginia Supreme Court, and one case from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the year ending June 1, 1988, that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article analyzes each of these legislative and judicial developments.

Administrative Procedure (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1987), John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

After three years of working major changes to the Virginia Administrative Process Act (VAPA), the General Assembly paid scant attention to the Commonwealth's fundamental law of administrative procedure in 1987. During its most recent session, the legislature produced only three amendments to VAPA, inserting a regulation severability provision, modifying VAPA's impact on Voluntary Formulary changes, and narrowing the exemption enjoyed by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. In two other statutory changes affecting administrative procedure, the General Assembly expressly provided for agency subdelegation and specified the method for computing time for a rule of court. While severability has evolved into an …

Why You Need A Will - A Pamphlet That Explains The Need To A Layperson, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The education of clients and potential clients is an essential cornerstone to the practice of preventive law. A valuable tool that can be used in such education is printed material that explains, in approach and language that can be understood easily by laypersons, the how's and why's of the legal system.

The following material by Professor Johnson is an excellent example of the type of material a firm could prepare for distribution to its clients or potential clients. Obviously, this material is presented merely as an example, and each such pamphlet, of course, would have to be tailored to the …

Wills, Trusts And Estates (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1985-86), J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The 1986 session of the General Assembly passed eight bills dealing with wills, trusts, and estates. In addition to this legislation, there were four cases from the Virginia Supreme Court and one case from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during the past year that involved issues of interest to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills, trusts, and estates. This article reviews all of these legislative and judicial developments. In order to facilitate the discussion of numerous Virginia Code sections they will be referred to in the text by their section numbers only. These section numbers will …

Administrative Procedure (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1986), John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

Since the last report, administrative law in Virginia has continued to develop on both the legislative and judicial fronts. This year's General Assembly enacted amendments to the state's administrative procedure statute which embody the third and final round of recommendations by the Governor's Regulatory Reform Advisory Board. The major changes were the standardization of procedures for obtaining judicial review of state agency action and the embodiment in statute of a corps of independent hearing officers.

Administrative Procedure (Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, 1985), John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

Both the General Assembly and the Supreme Court of Virginia have been active recently in administrative law. For the past three years, a broadly-based movement for bureaucratic reform has influenced the legislative and executive branches of state government. The instrument for formal expression of this reform has been the Governor's Regulatory Reform Advisory Board. In 1985, the General Assembly and the Governor responded obligingly to a second round of suggestions from the Board for amendment of the commonwealth's general administrative process act. These legislative changes involved the definition of regulation, i.e., the output of a statutorily controlled administrative rulemaking process, …

Legislative Changes To Virginia Administrative Rulemaking, John Paul Jones

Law Faculty Publications

The year 1983 was an active one for administrative law reform in Virginia. The Governor's Regulatory Reform Advisory Board completed its first full year of studying the state administrative process in Virginia, developing proposals for its improvement and drafting enabling legislation. The Board received a wide variety of suggestions from state employees, businesses, and the public at large in open hearings and through private correspondence. The result was the Board's first annual report, containing a series of proposed legislative reforms. The common thread of these reforms was an increased public involvement in bureaucratic decision-making creating broadly applicable regulations with the …

Virginia Tax Laws Affecting Churches, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

This is the second of two articles dealing with external church law in Virginia. The first article was a restatement of all Virginia laws relating to churches except for the tax laws. The subject of taxes was reserved for special treatment at that time because of the volume of tax-related materials. For the most part these materials consist of the various constitutional and statutory taxation provisions relating to religious charities and the opinions of the Virginia Attorney General interpreting and applying these provisions. Attorney General opinions take on a special importance in this study because there is only a handful …

The Abolition Of The Forms Of Action In Virginia, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

The common law procedure for initiating actions at law in the English courts required a plaintiff to obtain a writ invoking the jurisdiction of the court and to file a declaration setting forth the facts that justified instigation of the suit and established the cause of the action. This clumsy and archaic system of litigation was abolished by a single chop of the legislative guillotine in New York in 1848. England followed suit in 1875, and the United States federal courts in 1938. Writs and declarations were replaced by simple forms which were copied from the practice of the equity …

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, Twenty-Sixth Annual Survey Of Developments In Virginia Law, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The Virginia General Assembly continued its increased legislative activity in the area of wills, trusts, and estates during the past year by passing three major acts: Exempt Property and Allowances; Acts Barring Property Rights; and the Virginia Small Estate Act. In addition to these major bills, seven additional acts enacted by the General Assembly and four cases decided by the Supreme Court of Virginia involved issues important to both the general practitioner and the specialist in wills and trusts. This article reviews these legislative and judicial developments, with emphasis on the three most important legislative enactments.

Virginia Law Affecting Churches - Restated, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

Twenty-five years ago, the late William T. Muse, then Dean of the University of Richmond School of Law, observed that although there was considerable law in Virginia relating to churches this law was widely scattered throughout the statutes and the cases. To remedy this state of affairs, Dean Muse wrote a concise but complete summary of these laws. In the quarter-century that has elapsed since Dean Muse's article was published, Virginia has adopted a new constitution, many church-related statutes have been enacted and a number of church-related cases have been decided, some of which have refined established principles and others …

Incorporation And The Securities Acts, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

ATTORNEYS, when advising clients regarding the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating a business, must carefully consider the applicability of the securities laws, state and federal, to the venture from its inception. If a business were run as a proprietorship or a general partnership, the principals could dispose of their interests in the business without consideration of the securities laws. The issuance of stock by a corporation to such individuals in exchange for cash or their interests in the business triggers the application of both state and federal securities laws. More importantly, however, the attorney must recognize that these statutes will …

Estate, Gift And Income Tax Aspects Of Virginia's Transplanted Community Property - A Primer, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

Almost a quarter of a century has now passed since the Virginia Supreme Court officially recognized the existence of transplanted community property in this state in the landmark case of Commonwealth v. Terjen, 197 Va. 596, 90 S.E. 2d 801 (1956). In this case, involving a California couple who sold their community-property owned residence in California and brought the proceeds along with them when moved to Virginia, the court held: "A change of domicile from a state where the community property law prevails to a common-law state does not affect the community property character of property previously acquired." Thus community …

Support Of The Surviving Spouse And Minor Children In Virginia: Proposed Legislation V. Present Law, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

This article will examine the various economic needs of the typical family during both the probate and the post-probate periods. The discussion will be presented under three separate headings which, it is hoped, will help to identify the major areas of concern. These three major areas of concern are: (I) a family allowance-to defray the ordinary and necessary expenses associated with the maintenance of a household for the decedent's family during the probate period, (II) a right to exempt property-to insure the continued possession by the decedent's family of those articles of personal property that are indispensable to the maintenance …

Notes On Virginia Civil Procedure, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

This book is an outline of the introductory course on Virginia civil procedure which the author teaches at University of Richmond. The purpose of this publication is to give the students an introduction to the subject which can be read prior to the classroom discussion. It is a very brief sketch of the subject, but there are references in the footnotes to cases and statutes or to secondary works which give case references. The scope of my course and of this book excludes all federal law, criminal law and habeas corpus, evidence, creditors' rights, and probate proceedings; these matters are …

Inheritance Rights Of Children In Virginia, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

The rights of children to succeed to a deceased ancestor's property interests in Virginia are treated in some fifteen separate sections of the Virgina Code. When one considers that these fifteen sections were enacted over a period of 189 years, as the result of legislation introduced by various individuals who were at any given time focusing on a particular portion of this larger problem area without always taking into account the "spin-off' effect that their particular legislation might have on all of the other sections dealing with the succession rights of children, it is not surprising to find that there …

A Letter Of Lewis Burwell To James Burrough, July 8, 1734, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Not long ago while rummaging through the record office in Bury St. Edmunds, I came across a letter 1 from Lewis Burwell (1710-1756) of Gloucester County, Virginia, to James Burrough (1691-1764), his cousin and former tutor at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, which sheds some light upon the Burwell family and the education of colonial Virginians in the mother country.

The Abolition Of Dower In Virginia: The Uniform Probate Code As An Alternative To Proposed Legislation, J. Rodney Johnson

Law Faculty Publications

Elsewhere in the pages of this issue the reader will find a discussion of some of the more important legislation enacted by the 1972 session of the General Assembly of Virginia. This article is concerned with one of the bills that did not pass-the bill to abolish dower and curtesy. Why all this concern with a dead bill, especially since the dower problem is one of long standing which has sustained attacks before? The answer is that the forces of opposition have grown stronger each year among Virginia lawyers. The Virginia Advisory Legislative Council has recommended the conversion of dower …