Court Opinion

ID: 9573348
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:52:58.525062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:35:01.369101
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE CARRICO, with whom JUSTICE COMPTON joins,
dissenting.
I dissented in Middlekauff v. Allstate Insurance Co., 247 Va. 150, 439 S.E.2d 394 (1993), cited in the majority opinion, because I thought the doctrine of stare decisis required the Court to give effect to its earlier decision in Haddon v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 239 Va. 397, 389 S.E.2d 712 (1990), with the re-*141suit that the judgment in Middlekauff would have been affirmed. But, as I pointed out in a footnote to my dissent, 247 Va. at 156 n.*, 439 S.E.2d at 398 n.*, while five justices voted to reverse the judgment in Middlekauff, only three voted to overrule Haddon. Today, however, the assault upon stare decisis succeeds; five justices vote to overrule Haddon, with the result that the judgment of the trial court, which was based solely upon Haddon, will be reversed. Hoping to keep the doctrine of stare decisis alive, I would apply the doctrine here, give effect to Haddon, and affirm the judgment of the trial court.