Court Opinion

ID: 9607205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:56:19.50566+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:37.575184
License: Public Domain

Carrico, J.,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority that the trial court had power under Code § 8-348 to amend the order of June 18, 1973, to show that exceptions had been filed to the commissioners’ report. So far as we know, the failure of the order to recite the filing and overruling of exceptions may have resulted from the deliberate decision of the then counsel for the Highway Commissioner to abandon the exceptions previously filed. But whether this was the case, the possibility that it was the case amply demonstrates the policy reason that Code § 8-348 should be limited, as its language clearly indicates, to permit amendment of a judgment or decree to correct only a mistake, miscalculation, or misrecital of a name, sum, quantity, or time.
Code § 8-348 is the only possible source of the trial court’s power to amend the June 18 order. Because, in my view, the Code section does not bestow power to make the type amendment at issue in this case, I would hold that the attempted correction was a nullity; that the situation must be viewed as though no exceptions were filed; and, therefore, that the June 18 order was not appealable. Hence, I would dismiss the appeal. State Highway Commissioner v. Fairmac Corporation, 212 Va. 8, 181 S.E.2d 605 (1971).
Snead, C.J., joins in this dissent.