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The Supreme Court of Appeals, commonly known as the Supreme Court, is West Virginia’s highest court and court of last resort. West Virginia was one of only nine states with a single appellate court until the 2022 addition of the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court hears appeals of decisions over matters decided in the state circuit courts, including criminal convictions affirmed by the circuit courts on appeal from magistrate court, and appeals from administrative agencies. The court also hears appeals of domestic relations decisions decided in family court if both parties agree that they will not appeal directly to the circuit court. The court decides which appeals it will hear, rejecting others and thereby letting the lower court decision stand.

The justices also have extraordinary writ powers and original jurisdiction in proceedings of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, and certiorari. They also interpret the laws and constitutions of West Virginia and the United States.

Arguments before the Supreme Court are presented by attorneys. There are no witnesses, juries, or testimony. After justices have heard oral arguments and reviewed attorneys’ written materials, known as briefs, they issue written decisions, or opinions. These opinions may be appealed only to the U.S. Supreme Court and only if federal law is involved. Otherwise, decisions of the West Virginia Supreme Court are final.

There are two terms of the Supreme Court of Appeals each year, beginning the second Tuesday in January and the first Wednesday in September. At other times, the justices consider the emergency business that comes before the court. The court also has administrative and regulatory responsibilities over the judicial branch of state government. The court sits in Charleston, but may travel to other locations.

During the state’s first 10 years, Supreme Court proceedings were held solely at the state capital in Wheeling or Charleston. At that time, the court held three sessions per year, and in 1873, the legislature decided to rotate the court’s sessions among Charleston, Wheeling, and Charles Town. The Supreme Court met for the first time in Charles Town on August 6, 1873. In days of poor transportation, rotating the court allowed more people to attend the proceedings. The rotation system remained in place until 1912, when the Supreme Court was established permanently in Charleston.

Since 2015, the five justices have been elected in nonpartisan elections to 12-year terms. The position of chief justice, traditionally a rotating one-year position, has in recent practice changed to the election of the chief justice to multiyear terms by vote of the justices. In the case of vacancies on the court, the governor appoints justices to fill the vacancies until the next election.

Justices were elected by partisan vote for most of the court’s history. Prior to the switch to nonpartisan elections in 2015, Democrats dominated the membership of the modern court. Between 1932 and 2015, only 10 Republicans won seats. Eight of them were appointed by Republican governors to fill vacancies. Seven of these served for less than two years until Democrats won their seats in the next election, and one, Charles Haden II, resigned to accept a federal appointment. Republican Brent Benjamin broke the Democratic trend in 2004, ousting Justice Warren McGraw with the aid of heavy campaign spending.

Until 2004, serious contests for seats on the court, when they occurred, were in the Democratic primary. Election in the general election was still required, but Democrats always won due to their heavy majority among West Virginia voters. In 1988, Margaret Workman narrowly defeated Justice Darrell McGraw in the primary and became the first woman justice and the first woman elected to statewide office in West Virginia. Justice Workman left the bench in 1999 but ran again in 2008 and won another 12-year term on the court.

For the period of the 1960s and 1970s, political scientists ranked West Virginia’s court among the 12 least activist courts as regards the making of public policy. In 1976, this changed with the election of liberal justices Sam Harshbarger, Darrell McGraw, and Thomas Miller. Subsequently, the court increasingly favored claimants in decisions about workers’ compensation and tort law. The court also moved from a docket overwhelmingly dominated by private law cases to deciding numerous high-profile public law cases.

Some court decisions instituted major changes in state policies regarding the prison system (Crain v. Bordenkircher, 1986, 1988, 1989, and 1990); the financing of public schools (Pauley v. Kelly, 1979, and State ex rel. Board of Education v. Rockefeller, 1981); and property tax assessment and appraisal methods (Killen v. Logan County, 1982). In 1989, the court required the legislature to redesign the system for compensating court-appointed attorneys (Jewell v. Manard).

The court also developed new common law doctrines. In tort claims, the court rejected the doctrine of contributory negligence that prohibited injured parties from any recovery in accidents that they themselves even partially caused (Bradley v. Appalachian Power Co., 1979). In product liability suits, the court allowed recovery from damages caused by all kinds of products, not only those called inherently dangerous in the previous tort law (Morningstar v. Black and Decker, 1979). The 1978 Mandolidis case expanded an injured worker’s right to sue an employer. The court also narrowed common law definition of employment at the will of the employer in ways that constrained the ability to fire workers (Cook v. Heck’s, 1986).

As of 2023 there have been 82 justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals. In 1863, the court sat in Wheeling, the capital at the time, and consisted of three judges. Its membership was increased to four with the ratification of the current West Virginia constitution in 1872. A 1902 constitutional amendment increased the number to the present five. The longest single period of service was that of the late Frank C. Haymond of Marion County, who served as a justice for nearly 27 years.

New legislation changed the election of Supreme Court justices from a partisan to nonpartisan basis in 2016. The first nonpartisan election was held at the time of the spring primary elections in May 2016. Beth Walker was elected to the court, defeating Justice Benjamin, former Justice Darrell McGraw, and other candidates. With Walker’s election, 2017 was the first time in the state’s history that women held a majority of seats on the court, being composed of Workman, Robin Davis, Walker, Menis Ketchum and Allen Loughry.

Great controversy surrounded the court in the second decade of the 21st century, involving the lavish remodeling and redecorating of court facilities among other matters and intensifying after the election of Allen Loughry as chief justice in 2017. In June 2018 Loughry was named by the West Virginia Judicial Investigation Commission in 32 counts accusing him of violating the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct. The other justices recused themselves in ensuing Supreme Court proceedings against Loughry, and substitute justices were appointed. This special court suspended Loughry from the Supreme Court without pay. On June 20, a federal grand jury indicted Loughry on 22 counts, and on June 26 the House of Delegates voted to begin an investigation to determine whether impeachment proceedings were justified against Loughry or other justices of the Supreme Court. On July 11, the day before those proceedings were to begin, Menis Ketchum resigned from the court, and on July 31, he agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors for wire fraud.

On August 7, the House Judiciary Committee approved 14 articles of impeachment against the remaining four justices. On August 13, after 16 hours of debate, the House adopted 11 of those articles, although all four justices were not accused of the same offenses. The next day, Robin Davis resigned from the court to allow both her seat and Ketchum’s to be included in the November general election. Any court seats vacated less than 84 days from the next election are appointed by the governor. Cabell County Circuit Judge Paul Farrell was appointed by Workman to serve on the court during Loughry’s suspension and would preside over an impeachment trial in the Senate. The first to be tried, Beth Walker was censured by the Senate, keeping her in office. Responding to a petition by Workman, the Supreme Court blocked further impeachment trials, ruling that the three articles filed against Workman violated the separation of powers doctrine. On October 12, a federal jury found Allen Loughry guilty on 11 counts of wire fraud, making false statements to federal investigators, witness tampering and mail fraud. On November 10, Loughry submitted his resignation letter to the governor.

Governor Jim Justice appointed former Congressman Evan Jenkins and former House of Delegates member Tim Armstead to fill the seats vacated by the resignations of Davis and Ketchum until the November 6 election. Both were subsequently elected to fill the remainder of those terms. On December 12, Justice appointed Raleigh County judge John Hutchison to complete Loughry’s term. In 2020, Workman chose not to run again. Hutchison and Armstead were reelected to their seats, and William Wooten, a former delegate and state senator, won in a four-way race for Workman’s seat. In February 2022, Jenkins resigned from his seat, two years before it was due to expire. In April Justice appointed former Assistant U.S. Attorney C. Haley Bunn to Evans’ seat.

The Supreme Court is housed on the first, third, and fourth floors of the state capitol’s east wing. The impressive court chambers are surrounded by marble Doric columns, crowned by a bronze-framed stained-glass skylight, and fitted with specially designed black walnut furniture. The capitol’s architect, Cass Gilbert, was so pleased with the room that, several years later, he designed nearly identical chambers for the U.S. Supreme Court building.

This Article was written by Chuck Smith

Last Revised on August 24, 2023

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Cite This Article

Smith, Chuck "Supreme Court of Appeals." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 24 August 2023. Web. 27 November 2024.