The owner of any property may institute an action and recover from the parents, or either of them, of any minor living with such parents, or either of them, for damages suffered by reason of the willful or malicious destruction of, or damage to, such property by such minor. No more than $2,500 may be recovered from such parents, or either of them, as a result of any incident or occurrence on which such action is based. Any recovery from the parent or parents of such minor shall not preclude full recovery from such minor except to the amount of the recovery from such parent or parents. The provisions of this statute shall be in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other law imposing upon a parent liability for the acts of his minor child.
Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-44
Action against parent for damage to private property by minor
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 89 Md. App. 762 - In Re William George T. (1992)
Most recently applied in 89 Va. Cir. 289 - Hawes v. Cummings (November 2014)
Code 1950, § 8-654.1:1; 1966, c. 532; 1972, c. 825; 1977, c. 617; 1984, c. 48; 1987, c. 193; 1994, cc. 508, 552; 1996, c. 698.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.