Can You Sue a Virginia City or County for an Injury? A New Ruling Shows Where the Line Is
If a private company's carelessness injures you in Virginia, the path is familiar: you bring a negligence claim, and the fight is about fault and damages. If a city, a county, or a town injures you, a different question comes first, and it ends a great many cases before anyone gets to fault at all.
That question is sovereign immunity. A decision the Supreme Court of Virginia handed down on July 16, 2026 is a useful reminder of how much work that doctrine still does in this state.
What the new case decided
The case is City of Hopewell v. Shree Arihant Motel, Inc., Record No. 251193 (Va. July 16, 2026).
Shree Arihant owned a vacant shopping center built in the 1970s. The City declared it blighted, and city officials described the buildings as dilapidated, deteriorated, unsafe, and unfit for human occupancy. In February 2021, the City's fire department burned the shopping center down in a controlled burn and the debris was hauled away. The owner sued, alleging intentional trespass, statutory business conspiracy, tortious interference with a business expectancy, waste, and an unconstitutional taking.
The Supreme Court of Virginia held that the City was immune from nearly all of it. Abating blight, the Court explained, "involves the exercise of a municipality's discretionary authority and promotes the health, safety, and general welfare of a municipality's citizens." That makes it a governmental function, and municipalities are immune from claims arising out of governmental functions.
The owner argued that the City was really motivated by the prospect of redevelopment. The Court assumed that might be partly true and held that it did not matter. Where a governmental purpose is mixed with some other purpose, "the governmental function is the overriding factor and the doctrine of sovereign immunity will shield the locality from liability."
One claim survived: the takings claim under Article I, Section 11 of the Virginia Constitution. Sovereign immunity does not bar claims based on self-executing provisions of the Virginia Constitution.
This was a property and business dispute, not a personal injury case. But the immunity rule it applies is the same rule that decides whether an injured person in Virginia can sue a locality at all.
The rule that actually decides these cases
Two features of Virginia law do most of the work.
Counties and cities are not treated the same. Counties share fully in the Commonwealth's immunity from tort. Cities and towns do not. For a municipal corporation, immunity "depends on the type of function it exercises when liability arises."
For cities and towns, everything turns on governmental versus proprietary. A function is governmental if it "entails the exercise of an entity's political, discretionary, or legislative authority" and is "directly tied to the health, safety, and welfare" of the municipality's citizens. A function is proprietary if it "is a ministerial act and involves no discretion" and is "performed primarily for the benefit of the municipality." A city is immune for the first category and can be sued for the second.
And within the protected category, the immunity is broad. A municipality is immune for a governmental function even when it exercises its authority in a "negligent or improper manner."
How far that goes
Niese v. City of Alexandria, 264 Va. 230 (2002), shows how unforgiving this can be.
An Alexandria police officer repeatedly raped a woman who had come to him for help with her teenage son. Over a period of months she reported what was happening to a city mental health counselor, to a city sexual assault program director, and eventually to the police department itself. The assaults continued during that period. She sued the City for the officer's intentional torts and for negligently retaining him after it was on notice of his conduct.
The Supreme Court of Virginia held the City immune from all of it. Maintaining a police force is a governmental function; the decision to retain a particular officer is "an integral part" of that function; and a municipality is immune from liability for intentional torts committed by an employee in the performance of a governmental function.
That holding is not a judgment about what happened to her. It is a demonstration that in Virginia the immunity question is answered by the category of the function, not by how badly the government behaved.
Two things this does not mean
It does not mean the individual is immune. Virginia law treats the government and its individual employees as separate questions. A locality's immunity does not automatically extend to the person who caused the harm, and whether a particular employee is immune is its own inquiry.
It does not mean the Virginia Tort Claims Act helps you. People often assume that the Virginia Tort Claims Act opened localities up to being sued. It did not. Va. Code § 8.01-195.3 waives the Commonwealth's immunity in certain cases and caps the recovery at $100,000, or the limits of an applicable liability policy if those limits are greater. The same section says the article does not apply "to any county, city or town in the Commonwealth," and shall not "remove or in any way diminish" their sovereign immunity.
Notice deadlines: Virginia, Maryland, and D.C.
If a government entity may be involved in your injury, the notice deadlines are short, they are strict, and they run from the injury rather than from the day you decide to do something about it.
| Question | Virginia | Maryland | District of Columbia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deadline to give written notice of an injury claim | 1 year for claims against the Commonwealth or a transportation district (Va. Code § 8.01-195.6). The Virginia Tort Claims Act does not apply to counties, cities, or towns. | 1 year after the injury, for claims against a local government or its employees (Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-304) | 6 months after the injury or damage (D.C. Code § 12-309) |
| What the notice must contain | The nature of the claim, the time and place the injury is alleged to have occurred, and the agency alleged to be liable | The time, place, and cause of the injury, in writing | The approximate time, place, cause, and circumstances of the injury or damage, in writing |
| Who the notice goes to | The Director of the Division of Risk Management or the Attorney General; claims against the Department of Transportation go to the Commissioner of Highways | Depends on the locality — for example, the City Solicitor in Baltimore City, the County Executive in Howard and Montgomery Counties, and the county solicitor or county attorney in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Frederick, Harford, and Prince George’s Counties | The Mayor of the District of Columbia |
| Is there any relief for a missed notice? | Yes, if the Division of Risk Management, an insurer providing coverage, or the Attorney General had actual knowledge of the claim within one year | Yes — for good cause shown, unless the local government can affirmatively show its defense was prejudiced; and the requirement does not apply if the local government had actual or constructive notice within one year | A written report by the Metropolitan Police Department, made in the regular course of duty, is sufficient notice |
What to do if a government entity may have hurt you
Treat the deadline as the emergency. Six months, in the District, goes by quickly, and a missed notice can end a claim that would otherwise have been strong.
Write down exactly which entity did what. Whether the responsible party is the Commonwealth, a county, a city, a town, a transportation district, or a private contractor working for one of them changes the analysis completely.
Do not assume immunity ends the conversation. The takings claim survived in Hopewell. Constitutional claims, claims arising out of proprietary functions, claims against individual employees, and claims against private contractors all sit outside the doctrine's reach.
Get help before the clock runs. Working out which entity is responsible, whether the function was governmental or proprietary, and where the notice has to be sent is not something to sort out alone while a six-month or one-year deadline is running.
Talk to a lawyer who handles these claims in all three jurisdictions
Posey Lebowitz PLLC represents injured people and businesses in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. If a city, county, or government agency may have caused your injury, we can tell you which deadline applies to you and whether immunity is actually a barrier in your case.
Call us at (202) 524-0123 or use our contact form for a free consultation.
This article is general information, not legal advice about your case.
