Gregory Allen Marlowe v. Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority

CourtCourt of Appeals of Virginia
DecidedJuly 30, 2024
Docket0789233
StatusPublished

This text of Gregory Allen Marlowe v. Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority (Gregory Allen Marlowe v. Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gregory Allen Marlowe v. Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority, (Va. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

Present: Judges Ortiz, Friedman and White PUBLISHED

Argued at Christiansburg, Virginia

GREGORY ALLEN MARLOWE OPINION BY v. Record No. 0789-23-3 JUDGE FRANK K. FRIEDMAN JULY 30, 2024 SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA REGIONAL JAIL AUTHORITY, ET AL.

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF WISE COUNTY John C. Kilgore, Judge

Richard D. Kennedy (Kennedy Law Office, on briefs), for appellant.

Lori J. Bentley (John D. Eure; Johnson, Ayers & Matthews, on brief), for appellees.

This appeal involves the attempt of a prisoner, Gregory Marlowe, to recover for injuries

he suffered while being transported to the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in a van operated by

Tiffany Castle, a regional jail employee. The circuit court dismissed Marlowe’s claims finding

that Castle was entitled to sovereign immunity for simple negligence and that “the allegations in

the complaint, when taken as true, are insufficient as a matter of law to state a claim for gross

negligence.” The circuit court also denied Castle’s plea asserting that Marlowe’s claims were

barred by the one-year statute of limitations under Code § 8.01-243.2.

Marlowe appeals the circuit court’s ruling that his allegations failed to state a claim for

gross negligence. Castle raised cross-error to the circuit court’s decision denying Castle’s statute

of limitations plea. BACKGROUND1, 2

Marlowe is injured while being transported in a van driven by Castle.

According to the second amended complaint, Marlowe was arrested on May 10, 2019, for

misdemeanor charges and taken to the Wise County Justice Center for processing. After

Marlowe was processed, Castle transported Marlowe in a van to the Regional Jail in Duffield,

Virginia. The van used to transport Marlowe is owned by the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail

Authority.

During the ride, “Marlowe was shackled by handcuffs from hands to feet” but Castle

failed to secure or restrain Marlowe to his “seat, bars or any other portion of the van to prevent

falling.” During the ride, Castle applied the brakes, causing Marlowe to be “thrown forward”

onto the floor. Castle “radioed back to Marlowe” to ask if he was okay. Marlowe told Castle

that he was hurt and that she needed to stop the van. Castle continued to drive knowing Marlowe

was not secured to his seat; she then applied the brakes again, harder, “forcibly catapult[ing]

Marlowe” into the air and against the wall of the van, “knocking him unconscious, injuring one

of his hands, and causing him to have ear bleeding, vision impairment[,] and vomiting[.]”

1 No transcript or written statement of facts in lieu of a transcript was filed for either hearing in this case. A transcript or written statement of facts is not “necessary to permit resolution” of the issues on appeal, however, because this Court reviews circuit court decisions sustaining demurrers de novo. See Rule 5A:8(b)(4)(ii); see also Theologis v. Weiler, 76 Va. App. 596, 603 (2023). Similarly, “[w]here no evidence is taken in support of a plea in bar, the trial court, and the appellate court upon review, consider solely the pleadings in resolving the issue presented.” Commonwealth v. Muwahhid, 77 Va. App. 821, 828 (2023) (quoting Gray v. Va. Sec’y of Transp., 276 Va. 93, 97 (2008)). 2 When reviewing a circuit court’s decision sustaining a demurrer, we “accept as true all factual allegations expressly pleaded in the complaint and interpret those allegations in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Coward v. Wellmont Health Sys., 295 Va. 351, 358 (2018). “Furthermore, we draw any reasonable inferences arising from the express factual allegations of the complaint in the plaintiff’s favor.” Taylor v. Aids-Hilfe Koln e.V., 301 Va. 352, 357 (2022). -2- The circuit court dismisses the second amended complaint.

Marlowe filed a complaint on June 9, 2020, alleging negligence against the jail authority,

Steve Clear (the superintendent of the jail authority), and “Jane Doe (Transportation Van Driver

on May 10, 2019).” Clear and the jail authority demurred to the complaint and filed pleas in bar

asserting sovereign immunity and that the action was barred by the applicable statute of

limitations. The circuit court sustained Clear’s demurrer and dismissed the claim against him

with prejudice.

With the circuit court’s permission, Marlowe filed a timely amended complaint

substituting Castle for Jane Doe as a party defendant. The jail authority again filed a plea in bar

asserting sovereign immunity. Castle also filed pleas in bar asserting sovereign immunity and

that the action was barred by the applicable statute of limitations, which Castle argued was Code

§ 8.01-243.2. Code § 8.01-243.2 sets a one-year statute of limitations for claims brought by

persons “confined in a state or local correctional facility . . . relating to the conditions of his

confinement.” Castle argued that because Marlowe’s injury occurred on May 10, 2019, his May

13, 2021 amended complaint against Castle was not timely filed under Code § 8.01-243.2.3

As for the statute of limitations, Marlowe did not dispute that he had filed his claim

against Castle more than a year after it accrued. He argued, rather, that Code § 8.01-243.2 did

not apply because he was in a van when the injury occurred, and a van is not a “correctional

facility.” Marlowe asserted that Code § 53.1-31.1 is “the most applicable code section for this

3 Even though Marlowe filed the amended complaint more than two years after the injury occurred, it would nonetheless be timely under the ordinary two-year statute of limitations for personal injury, because “pursuant to the COVID-19 judicial emergency orders, all case-related deadlines were suspended for 126 days between March 16, 2020, to July 19, 2020.” Clutteur v. Rosier, 79 Va. App. 55, 76 (2023) (citing English v. Quinn, 76 Va. App. 80, 92 (2022) (holding that “[t]he Supreme Court’s emergency orders [relating to the COVID pandemic] tolled all statutes of limitations from March 16, 2020, through July 19, 2020”)). Thus, the May 10, 2021 deadline for Marlowe’s two-year claim was extended into September 2021. -3- cause of action.”4 Marlowe argued that Code § 53.1-31.1 created a standard of care for a prison

authority overseeing transportation of an individual in custody, the violation of which would give

rise to an action for negligence. Accordingly, Marlowe argued, that a two-year statute of

limitations would apply. See Code § 8.01-243.

The circuit court held a hearing on December 1, 2022, and entered an order sustaining the

pleas of sovereign immunity and denied Castle’s plea of the statute of limitations, granting

Marlowe “leave to file a second amended complaint to attempt to assert a claim of gross

negligence.” Marlowe filed a second amended complaint, naming only Castle as the defendant,

and asserting a claim against her for gross negligence. Castle demurred.

After a February 15, 2023 hearing, the circuit court entered a final order sustaining

Castle’s demurrer to the second amended complaint. The circuit court concluded that “the

allegations in the complaint, when taken as true, are insufficient as a matter of law to state a

claim for gross negligence.” Marlowe appealed, assigning error to the circuit court’s ruling that

the allegations were insufficient to rise to gross negligence. Castle raised cross-error, assigning

error to the circuit court’s decision denying her plea in bar asserting that Marlowe’s claim was

barred by the statute of limitations under Code § 8.01-243.2.

ANALYSIS

A.

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