Estate of Robert Judson James, Administrator, Edwin F. Gentry, Esq. v. Kenneth C. Peyton; American Casualty Company of Reading, PA v. Kenneth C. Peyton

Summary

The Supreme Court of Virginia held that an amended pleading naming “the Estate of Robert Judson James, Administrator, Edwin F. Gentry, Esquire” identified the estate, rather than Gentry in his representative capacity, as the defendant. Because the defect was a misjoinder rather than a misnomer, the court held that the proper party could not be substituted by amendment, reversed the circuit court, and entered final judgment for the estate and American Casualty.

Holdings

1. Read as a whole, the amended motion for judgment named the Estate of Robert Judson James as the defendant, not Edwin F. Gentry in his capacity as administrator.
2. Naming the estate instead of the personal representative was a misjoinder, not a misnomer, and could not be corrected by substituting the administrator under Code § 8.01-6.
3. The action could not be maintained against Gentry as administrator by substituting him for the estate; absent a statute-of-limitations bar, the proper remedy would have been to commence a new action against the proper party.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the amended motion for judgment, read as a whole, named Edwin F. Gentry in his capacity as administrator of James's estate or instead named the estate itself as the defendant.
2. Whether any defect in naming the estate rather than the administrator constituted a correctable misnomer under Code § 8.01-6.
3. Whether the circuit court properly vacated its summary-judgment order and permitted the action to continue against Gentry as administrator.

Disposition

reversed