Case Name: Claudia Heath v. Kathryn Jane Mooers and Mooers Motor Car Company, Inc.
Court: Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia
Jurisdiction: Virginia
Decision Date: 1938-11-22
Citations: 171 Va. 397
Docket Number: Record No. 1996
Parties: Claudia Heath v. Kathryn Jane Mooers and Mooers Motor Car Company, Inc.
Judges: 
Reporter: Virginia Reports
Volume: 171
Pages: 397–398

Head Matter:
Richmond
Claudia Heath v. Kathryn Jane Mooers and Mooers Motor Car Company, Inc.
November 22, 1938.
Record No. 1996.
Present, Campbell, C. J., and Holt, Gregory, Eggleston and Spratley, JJ.
The opinion states the case.
W. M. Phipps, Reuben E. Spandorfer and J. Randolph Davis, for the plaintiff in error.
W. C. Pender, for the defendants in error.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
Claudia Heath filed a notice of motion for judgment against Kathryn Jane Mooers and Mooers Motor Car Company, Incorporated, claiming damages for injuries sustained by her in an automobile collision. The plaintiff below alleged that at the time of the collision she was a passenger in a car which was being driven by Kathryn Jane Mooers, that the latter was the agent of Mooers Motor Car Company, Incorporated, and was guilty of gross negligence which proximately caused the collision.
Issue was joined in the pleadings and a jury was impaneled to try the same. At the conclusion of the plaintiff's evidence it was stricken out by the court on the motion of the defendants over the objection of the plaintiff. Whereupon thé court discharged the jury, which had rendered no verdict, and entered a final judgment for the defendants.
We are of opinion that this was error. There was no waiver of a trial by jury, hence its verdict was an indispensable step in the proceedings. Without this verdict the court had no power or authority to enter a final judgment upon the issue joined.
Since there is no valid final judgment before us, we are not in a position to pass upon the merits of the case.
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for a new trial.
Reversed and remanded.