Court Opinion

ID: 9568004
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:59:45.018171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:12.644041
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COMPTON, with whom CHIEF JUSTICE CARRICO and JUSTICE STEPHENSON join,
dissenting.
The Virginia Human Rights Act (the Act) provides that: “Nothing in this chapter creates, nor shall it be construed to create, an independent or private cause of action to enforce its provisions. Nor shall the policies or provisions of this chapter be construed to allow tort actions to be instituted instead of or in addition to the current statutory actions for unlawful discrimination.” Code § 2.1-725.
The majority merely salutes this statute in passing by saying, “Here, we do not rely upon the Virginia Human Rights Act to create new causes of action. Rather, we rely solely on the narrow exception that we recognized in 1985 in Bowman, decided two years before the enactment of the Virginia Human Rights Act.” Those statements are not convincing because it is obvious that today the majority, contrary to the explicit language of the Act, allows private causes of action to enforce the Act’s provisions; it also allows generalized, common-law actions for wrongful discharge to be maintained in addition to the statutory actions currently available for unlawful discrimination.
*107The foregoing failure to follow the mandates of the Act results in an unwarranted encroachment upon Virginia’s employment-at-will doctrine, rigidly adhered to by this Court until now.
I would affirm the judgments in both cases.