Mattaponi Indian Tribe v. Virginia Marine Resources Commission

D. ARTHUR KELSEY, Judge.

This appeal presents the question whether a settlement agreed to by all litigants before the circuit court, consummated by the entry of a consent dismissal order, moots appellate review of the circuit court’s earlier denial of the appellant’s motion to intervene. Under the circumstances of this case, we hold that it does.

I

In 1993, the City of Newport News applied for a permit from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) seeking permission to install a raw water intake on state-owned bottomlands in the Mattaponi River. A decade later, in 2003, the VMRC denied…