Linhart v. Lawson

BY JUDGE JUNIUS P. FULTON, HI

The Court has had an opportunity to review the memoranda provided by counsel, the transcript of the hearing which was held on October 18,1999, and the applicable case law in consideration of the defendant’s Special Plea of Sovereign Immunity. There can be no question that the defendant Lawson, a school bus driver, satisfies the four-part test for governmental employee immunity as indicated in Messina v. Burden, 228 Va. 301, 313 (1984), and is thus immune from liability for simple negligence. Nor is there any doubt that the School Board’s Special Plea is based upon…