Justia Virginia Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

In April, 2006, Charles Volpe drowned in the Maury River below a low-head dam during a visit to a park owned by the Appellant City of Lexington. His parents S. Charles and Kim Volpe (Appellees) brought suit against the City seeking damages for gross negligence, willful and wanton negligence and public nuisance. The matter proceeded to a jury trial; in the end, the court struck the ordinary negligence claims and refused to instruct the jury on public nuisance. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the gross negligence claim, and the circuit court granted a renewed motion to strike that claim, finding the danger posed by the dam was open and obvious and therefore the City owed no duty to warn Charles. The record reflected that while many people swam in the waters created by the dam without incident, there was a deadly, hidden hydraulic created by an unusually strong current that the City knew existed. On appeal, the Supreme Court agreed that the "natural, ordinarily encountered dangers" of the river were open and obvious to Charles, the hidden hydraulic was not. The Court held that the City had a duty to warn Charles of the hidden dangers, and that the lower court erred by striking the Volpes' claims of gross negligence against the City, and remanded the matter for further proceedings. The Court affirmed the lower court's judgment striking the claim of willful and wanton negligence.