Davis , Justice : In this case, the Monongalia County Board of Education challenges a ruling by the Circuit Court of Monongalia County that found a county board of education could not contract with a Regional Education Service Agency ("RESA") to provide educational interventionists to county elementary and middle school students when those interventionists are hired by the West Virginia Board of Education ("State Board") operating through a RESA. The circuit court rested its conclusion on...
Davis , Justice : The petitioners herein and defendants below, Sugar Rock, Inc., et al. (collectively, "Sugar Rock"), 1 appeal from an order entered January 16, 2015, by the Circuit Court of Ritchie County. By that order, the circuit court granted partial summary judgment to the respondents herein and plaintiffs below, D. Michael Washburn, et al. (collectively, "the Minority Partners"). 2 More specifically, the circuit court determined that the subject parties' partnerships should be...
Ketchum , Chief Justice : The action underlying this appeal was brought by Wendy J. Miller, 1 John A. Elmore, B. Wayne Thompson, Ovid Need, and Bonnie Haggerty, citizens of Hardy County (collectively "Hardy County Citizens"), respondents herein, seeking to remove two commissioners serving on the Hardy County Commission ("Commission" or "the Commission"), and to void the Commission's purchase of a building and its imposition of a Special Emergency Ambulance Service Fee ("Ambulance Fee")....
DAVIS , Justice : The petitioner herein and defendant below, Ford Motor Company ("Ford"), requests this Court to issue a writ of prohibition to prevent the enforcement of orders entered October 5 and 21, 2015, by the Circuit Court of Wyoming County and to dismiss Ford from the underlying civil action. By those orders, the circuit court denied Ford's motion to dismiss the underlying complaint against it for lack of personal jurisdiction. Before this Court, Ford contends the circuit court...
KEADLE , Acting Chief Justice : Petitioner Brent D. Benjamin is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and a candidate seeking re-election to the Court in the upcoming May 10, 2016, non-partisan election. Although Justice Benjamin began his election campaign as a "traditional candidate," i.e., a candidate financed by contributions from supporters, he later made the decision to enter the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Public Campaign Financing Program, W. Va....
DAVIS , Justice : The petitioner herein and plaintiff below, Judith D. Ward ("Judith Ward"), appeals from an order entered January 29, 2015, by the Circuit Court of Hampshire County. By that order, the circuit court granted relief to Judith Ward upon her action for unlawful detainer against the respondent herein and defendant below, Susan K. Ward ("Susan Ward"). In granting such relief, the circuit court further ordered Judith Ward to pay Susan Ward $50,000 for the cost of the log cabin...
DAVIS , Justice : Pristine Pre-Owned Auto, Inc. ("Pristine"), petitioner herein and plaintiff below, appeals an order of the Circuit Court of Mineral County denying its complaint seeking a writ of mandamus 1 to compel the return of items seized by West Virginia State Police Trooper M.L. Travelpiece ("Trooper Travelpiece"), respondent herein and defendant below, in his execution of a search warrant at Pristine's business premises. Also named as a defendant below and appearing as a...
DAVIS , Justice : The petitioners herein, American Electric Power Co., Inc., et al. (collectively, "AEP"), request this Court to issue a writ of prohibition to prevent the enforcement of an order entered August 5, 2015, by the Circuit Court of Mason County. By that order, the circuit court denied AEP's motion to dismiss based upon forum non conveniens. 1 Before this Court, AEP contends that the circuit court erred by refusing to dismiss the underlying complaint pursuant to the forum non...
DAVIS , Justice : This appeal was filed by William L. Gill ("Mr. Gill") from an adverse final order of the Workers' Compensation Board of Review ("the Board"). The Board's order reversed a decision by the Workers' Compensation Office of Judges ("the OOJ"), which had added four new diagnoses to Mr. Gill's initial compensable claim for a lumbar and thoracic sprain injury. The Board found that the additional four diagnoses were noncompensable preexisting conditions. In this appeal, Mr. Gill...
DAVIS , Justice . The petitioners herein, Wheeling Hospital, Inc.; David A. Ghaphery, M.D.; and A.D. Ghaphery Professional Association (collectively, "Wheeling Hospital"), seek a writ of prohibition to preclude the enforcement of an order entered February 26, 2015, by the Circuit Court of Ohio County. By that order, the circuit court directed Wheeling Hospital to disclose to the respondent herein, Stephanie Mills ("Ms. Mills"), various documents it claimed to be subject to the peer review...
DAVIS , Justice : The petitioner herein and defendant below, the Travelers Indemnity Company ("Travelers"), appeals from an order entered March 5, 2014, by the Circuit Court of Morgan County. By that order, the circuit court denied Travelers' alternative post-trial motions for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial following the court's entry of a jury verdict against Travelers, and in favor of the respondent herein and plaintiff below, U.S. Silica Company ("U.S. Silica"), in the amount...
DAVIS , Justice : Petitioner, Tex B.S. ("Mr. S.") 1 , appeals from an order of the Circuit Court of Morgan County that corrected his sentence for first-degree sexual assault. Mr. S. alleges that the circuit court committed error in denying his request for a de novo resentencing hearing. The Respondent, State of West Virginia, responds in support of the circuit court's order correcting Mr. S.'s sentence without a de novo resentencing hearing. After a careful review of the briefs...
DAVIS , Justice : Petitioner, Tyler G., 1 appeals from an order of the Circuit Court of Hancock County that sentenced him to prison, after a jury convicted him of three sexual offenses against an infant. In this appeal, Petitioner has assigned error to the following: (1) failure to suppress statements made to police, (2) insufficiency of evidence of guilt, (3) improper use of information from juvenile record, (4) mentioning of polygraph during trial, (5) prejudicial effect of cumulative...
DAVIS , Justice : In this criminal appeal, the petitioner herein and defendant below, Lillie Mae Trail ("Ms. Trail"), challenges her conviction by jury of murder in the first degree and her sentence of life without mercy. 1 Ms. Trail herein alleges the following errors: (1) jury misconduct; (2) application of erroneous evidentiary standard for admission of autopsy and crime scene photographs during mercy phase; (3) improper reading to jury of West Virginia Slayer Statute; (4) flawed use of...
DAVIS , Justice : This is a criminal appeal by Jeremy Lambert (hereinafter "Mr. Lambert") from his conviction and sentence by the Circuit Court of Raleigh County. Mr. Lambert was convicted of first-degree murder without mercy. He was sentenced by the circuit court to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In this appeal, Mr. Lambert has made the following assignments of error: (1) erroneous rulings on felony-murder and lying-in-wait murder theories, (2) error in refusing to...
BENJAMIN , Justice : The instant action is before the Court upon the appeal of thirty-three Petitioners from a Rule 12(b)(6) order dismissing their second amended complaint filed against United Bank and Stan and Thelma McQuade, d/b/a McQuade Appraisal Services. The circuit court ruled that Petitioners' claims of fraud in the inducement, negligence, intentional and/or negligent infliction of emotional distress, breach of fiduciary duty, and constructive fraud were time-barred by the two-year...
DAVIS , Justice : Petitioner, Elk Run Coal Co., Inc., d/b/a Republic Energy ("Elk Run"), defendant and third-party plaintiff below, appeals four separate orders entered by the Circuit Court of Kanawha County on May 28, 2014. The orders grant summary judgment in favor of four different insurance companies and deny Elk Run's motion for partial summary judgment against one insurer. Third-party complaints filed by Elk Run against the four insurers were dismissed with prejudice. Elk Run contends...
DAVIS , Justice : The case sub judice presents appeals filed by two individuals [collectively, "the claimants"] who sustained employment-related injuries and who seek additional workers' compensation benefits as a result of further symptoms related to their original workplace injuries. In both cases, the claimants timely requested that the new diagnoses be added to their original claims, but, in both cases, denials of compensability and/or medical treatment required extensive litigation...
DAVIS , Justice : This is an eminent domain appeal that was brought by the Petitioners, West Virginia Department of Transportation, Division of Highways and Paul A. Mattox, Jr., Secretary/Commissioner of Highways (collectively "DOH"), from an adverse judgment in the Circuit Court of Hardy County. In seeking a new trial, DOH has set out nine assignments of error. The Respondent, Margaret Z. Newton ("Ms. Newton"), asks this Court to affirm the judgment below. 1 Upon our review of the parties'...
DAVIS , Justice : This case involves a dispute between a homeowners association that is a West Virginia Limited Expense Planned Community under W. Va.Code 36B-1-203 (1994) (Repl. Vol. 2011) and certain homeowners who have failed to pay their association assessments. The parties disagree over the ability of a West Virginia Limited Expense Planned Community to assert a common law lien on real property for unpaid association assessments, attorney's fees, and costs. In addition, we are asked...
