William v. City of Newport News

JUSTICE RUSSELL, with whom JUSTICE COMPTON

joins, dissenting.

Code § 65.1-40 is a model of legislative clarity. It provides that the Workers’ Compensation Act “shall exclude all other rights and remedies of such employee ... at common law or otherwise, on account of such injury.” No serious contention can be made that this language is ambiguous. Yet, the majority opinion appears to harbor the suspicion that the General Assembly could not have intended what it so clearly said. It proceeds to carve out an exception to this unambiguous statute, evidently based upon a theory of implied repeal.

The…