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...
LOUGHRY , Justice : The petitioners 1 seek a writ of prohibition to prevent the Mass Litigation Panel from enforcing its order entered on October 21, 2014, dismissing them on the basis of forum non conveniens from the underlying personal injury litigation, which involves products liability and negligence claims. Following a careful review of the briefs, the arguments of counsel, the record submitted, and the applicable law, we deny the requested writ. I. Facts and Procedural Background...
KETCHUM , Justice : The petitioners, the Warden of the Mount Olive Correctional Complex (the "Warden") and the Commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections (the "Commissioner"), appeal from the January 21, 2014, order of the Circuit Court of Calhoun County (the "habeas court") which granted habeas relief to the respondent, Richard Lee Hunt, Jr. ("Hunt"). The habeas court vacated Hunt's convictions and sentence for sexual abuse in the first degree and sexual abuse by a custodian...
KETCHUM , Justice : This original proceeding in prohibition is upon the petition of Jim Rubenstein, Commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections (the "Division"), challenging the order of the Circuit Court of Kanawha County which granted the respondent, Tracie Dennis ("Dennis"), work release from the South Central Regional Jail. The work release was granted for the three and a half month period between the entry of the order granting work release on August 15, 2014, and the...
DAVIS , Justice : This case was brought under the original jurisdiction of this Court by Safe-Guard Products International, LLC ("Safe-Guard") seeking a writ of prohibition to prevent enforcement of a partial summary judgment order by the Circuit Court of Mingo County. The circuit court's order determined that GAP 1 Insurance coverage issued by Safe-Guard was insurance for purposes of the litigation against it that was brought by Robin Hinkle ("Ms. Hinkle"). In this proceeding, Safe-Guard...
DAVIS , Justice : In this appeal, Petitioner Lexon Insurance Co. ("Lexon"), 1 defendant below, challenges the entry of default judgment against it in an action filed by Respondents County Council of Berkeley County, West Virginia, and Berkeley County Planning Commission (collectively "Berkeley County"). Because we find that the damages sought in this case are not a "sum certain" as required by West Virginia Rule of Civil Procedure 55(b)(1), default judgment was improperly granted under...
DAVIS , Justice : Petitioner Citynet, LLC ("Citynet"), herein appeals two orders issued by the Circuit Court of Kanawha County in an action filed by a former Citynet employee, Ray Toney ("Mr. Toney"), respondent herein, seeking to redeem the vested balance of his Employee Incentive Plan account. One order granted partial summary judgment to Mr. Toney, and the other denied Citynet's subsequent motion under Rules 59(e) and 60(b) of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure. Citynet claims...
