Wyatt v. McDermott

Summary

The Supreme Court of Virginia answered certified questions from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and held that Virginia recognizes a common-law tort of intentional interference with parental rights. The Court identified the elements of the tort, adopted a preponderance-of-the-evidence burden, described available compensatory and punitive damages, and limited the claim through an affirmative defense generally barring actions between parents with equal or substantially equal parental rights. The Court also held that equitable remedies such as injunctions or custody orders are unavailable in the tort action.

Holdings

1. Virginia recognizes the common law tort of tortious interference with parental rights.
2. The elements are: (1) the complaining parent has a right to establish or maintain a parental or custodial relationship with his/her minor child; (2) a party outside of the relationship intentionally interfered with the complaining parent's parental or custodial relationship by removing or detaining the child or otherwise preventing the parent from exercising parental rights; (3) the outside party's intentional interference caused harm to the complaining parent's relationship with his/her child; and (4) damages resulted from such interference. The burden of proof is preponderance of the evidence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Commonwealth of Virginia recognizes tortious interference with parental rights as a cause of action.
2. If so, what are the elements of the cause of action, and what is the burden of proof of such a claim?

Disposition

other