Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. v. Dowdy

This is the appeal of a damage suit in which the plaintiff seeks recovery for mental suffering and associated physical illness. The dispositive question is whether the common law of Virginia recognizes a tort of negligent supervision of an employee by the employer and its managerial personnel.

In 1983, appellee H. Lee Dowdy, Jr., brought this action against the appellants The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia, Leslye A. Miller, and Frank E. Ragland (sometimes collectively, C&P). The plaintiff had been an employee of C&P as a communications representative in C&P’s Norfolk…