Court Opinion

ID: 9588437
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:34:29.764291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:26.488611
License: Public Domain

*520STEPHENSON, J.,
concurring.
I concur with the majority’s result, but I do not agree with its rationale. The majority holds that, under the continuing relationship rule, Keller’s cause of action accrued in November 1980 when Denny rendered his last professional services in the KelWin — Nibco stock repurchase matter. At that time, however, Keller had not been damaged.
Damage is an essential element of a cause of action. Without some injury or damage, however slight, a cause of action cannot accrue. Stone v. Ethan Allen, Inc., 232 Va. 365, 369, 350 S.E.2d 629, 632 (1986); First Va. Bank-Colonial v. Baker, 225 Va. 72, 82, 301 S.E.2d 8, 13-14 (1983); Locke v. Johns-Manville Corp., 221 Va. 951, 957, 275 S.E.2d 900, 904 (1981); Caudill v. Wise Rambler, 210 Va. 11, 13, 168 S.E.2d 257, 259 (1969).
In the present case, no damage whatsoever occurred until December 1980, the deadline for achieving $5,000,000 in gross sales. Although Denny breached his duty to Keller in 1975, Keller’s cause of action and right of action did not accrue until the expiration of the option in December 1980. Thus, the statute of limitations began to run at that time.
This analysis, however, may conflict with Code § 8.01-230, which provides that a cause of action accrues and the statute of limitations begins to run “when the breach of contract or duty occurs in the case of damage to property . . . .’’To the extent that Code § 8.01-230 bars a cause of action before any damage has occurred, its application would deprive a person of property without due process of law in violation of the Federal and Virginia constitutions. U.S. Const, amend. XIV, § 1; Va. Const, art. I, § 11. See Potomac Hospital Corp. v. Dillon, 229 Va. 355, 360, 329 S.E.2d 41, 44-45 (1985); Shiflet v. Eller, 228 Va. 115, 121, 319 S.E.2d 750, 754 (1984). See also Marshall v. Bird, 230 Va. 89, 93, 334 S.E.2d 573, 575 (1985).