This case involved the administration of the estate of Carrie Washington, who had been adjudged insane; her niece Patty Finney served as committee, provided care until Washington's death, and filed a claim for compensation for those services. The circuit court, after a commissioner in chancery initially allowed the claim, disallowed Finney's $7,505 demand for daily caregiving, ruling that her testimony was inadmissible under the dead man's statute and that no implied contract existed. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed, holding that the administrator's limited testimony did not open the door to Finney's evidence as an interested party and that the family relationship created a presumption of gratuitous services that the circumstances did not rebut. The court therefore upheld the denial of the claim in the estate settlement proceeding.
The case involved landowners Thomas and Delvera Murray who sought a writ of mandamus against the West Virginia State Road Commissioner to compel the initiation of eminent domain proceedings for alleged damage to their property caused by the slippage of a highway embankment on State Route No. 2, which pushed against their house foundation. The court awarded the writ, ordering the commissioner to institute condemnation proceedings in the Circuit Court of Brooke County. The decision rested on Article III, Section 9 of the West Virginia Constitution, which mandates just compensation for private property taken or damaged for public use, and the petitioners' evidence suggesting that the highway's condition led to subterranean movement damaging their land.
This case concerned heirs of Harry S. Sands who filed suit in equity to declare void ab initio a perpetual charitable trust established in Item III of his 1952 will, which was being administered by Security Trust Company as trustee, and to enjoin further administration so that the estate would pass to them instead. After an initial will contest had upheld the will's validity and the trial court sustained demurrers to both the original and amended bills, the Circuit Court of Ohio County ruled that Section 7 of Item III validly designated the Diocesan Trustees of the Protestant Episcopal Church in West Virginia as residuary beneficiaries in the event the perpetual trust failed. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the dismissal, reasoning that Code 35-1-7 authorized religious organizations to receive and hold such bequests, that Section 7 contained no defeasance clause and would operate immediately upon any failure of the trust, and that the plaintiffs therefore lacked any justiciable interest or standing to maintain the action.
This case was a wrongful death action brought by the administrator of a 10-year-old boy against Amherst Coal Company after the child died from burns sustained in an explosion of a discarded container holding flammable liquid, which the boys found while playing near a company recreation hall on the defendant's property. A jury awarded the plaintiff $9,500, and the trial court entered judgment on the verdict, which was affirmed by the circuit court. The West Virginia Supreme Court reversed the judgments, set aside the verdict, and remanded for a new trial. The court held that West Virginia does not recognize the attractive nuisance doctrine and that the plaintiff failed to prove by substantial evidence that the defendant had dumped the specific container that caused the explosion, rendering the verdict unsupported on an essential element.
The case involved two companion mandamus proceedings brought by the boards of trustees of the City of Huntington's policemen's and firemen's pension or relief funds against the city and its mayor and council members. The boards sought to compel the city to levy property taxes at a rate up to 3.5 cents per $100 of valuation to fully cover their estimated expenditures for the 1956-57 fiscal year, after applying other revenues such as salary assessments and police court fines. The court denied the requested writs, holding that the petitioners failed to demonstrate a clear legal right to mandamus because the evidence showed that levies exceeding one cent per $100 were unnecessary and unwarranted under the governing statute. The decision rested on the established requirement that mandamus petitioners must prove a clear legal entitlement to relief, which was not met here given the available funds and statutory limits.
This case concerned a boundary line dispute between coterminous properties owned by the Westover Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. and Raymond W. Barker under a West Virginia statute for ascertaining boundary lines. The trial judge, sitting in lieu of a jury, viewed the premises without party consent and decided the boundary solely based on that view, without considering the record evidence including conflicting engineer surveys and testimony. The appellate court reversed, holding that no statutory authority permits a judge to take a view in such a proceeding and that the trial decision improperly disregarded the expert testimony; it entered judgment adopting the boundary line from the defendant's engineer's survey.