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221 Va. 43

282 S.E.2d 864

James v. Jane

Supreme Court of Virginia

Decided June 6, 1980

Supreme Court of Virginia · decided 1980-06-06

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“I agree with the result reached by the majority opinion. However, for reasons expressed in my dissent in Lawhome v. Harlan, 214 Va. 405, 408-09 , 200 S.E.2d 569, 572-73 (1973), I believe that Lawhome is inconsistent with Crabbe v. School Board and Albrite, 209 Va. 356 , 164 S.E.2d 639 (1968), is unsound, and should be forthrightly overruled rather than distinguished to extinction.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Shaffer v. City of Hampton, Va.

Relies on Lawhorne v. Harlan · Crabbe v. School Board and Albrite

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1980-06-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 325 later decisions — most recently December 2022 · most notably Messina v. Burden (1984), Kassen v. Hatley (1994)

10 federal appellate · 255 state decisions — followed in 10 states

119019801990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

COCHRAN, J.,

¶1concurring.

¶2I agree with the result reached by the majority opinion. However, for reasons expressed in my dissent in Lawhorne v. Harlan, 214 Va. 405, 408-09, 200 S.E.2d 569, 572-73 (1973), I believe that Lawhorneis inconsistent with Crabbe v. School Board and Albrite, 209 Va. 356, 164 S.E.2d 639 (1968), is unsound, and should be forthrightly overruled rather than distinguished to extinction.

¶3The majority opinion attempts, unsuccessfully in my view, to distinguish between full-time members of the faculty of the University of Virginia Medical School, held not to be immune from liability for negligence in the present case, and the hospital administrators and the surgical intern of the same institution, held to be immune in Lawhorne. Negligence is negligence — want of such care and caution as an ordinarily prudent and reasonable man would have exercised under the same circumstances. Agents and employees of an immune employer who fail to meet the reasonable man test are negli*56gent and should be held liable for their negligent acts that proximately cause injury to others.

¶4Therefore, I would overrule Lawhorne, so that the judiciary and the bar will understand that the principles approved in Crabbewill be followed in Virginia as they are in the majority of other jurisdictions. The uncertainty arising from hair-splitting distinctions will then give way to a sound, logical, and certain rule of general application.

¶5POFF, J., joins in the concurring opinion.

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