In this May 6, 1799, decision in the case of Pleasants v. Pleasants, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upholds the High Court of Chancery’s decision, overruling the appellants: Charles Logan and members of the Pleasants family. This appellate court ruled in favor of Robert Pleasants and the people formerly enslaved by the Pleasants family.
In Underwood v. McVeigh, decided on April 23, 1873, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals overturns a transaction by John C. Underwood, in which he had arranged for the Alexandria attorney S. Ferguson Beach to aid Maria Underwood in the purchase of property confiscated from William N. McVeigh.
In Thomas’s Administrator v. Bettie Thomas Lewis, decided on June 16, 1892, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Richmond City Court of Chancery to honor the deathbed wishes of William A. Thomas.
In Naim v. Naim, decided on June 13, 1955, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals grants Ruby Naim, a white woman, an annulment for her marriage to the Chinese-born Han Say Naim on the grounds that the interracial marriage had never been legal in Virginia.
In Loving v. Commonwealth, decided on March 7, 1966, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upholds the state’s antimiscegenation laws. The Court also sets aside the original conviction of Richard and Mildred Loving, finding that a sentence requiring the defendants, after having illegally lived as man and wife in Virginia, to leave the state is “unreasonable.” The Lovings appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won.
In Kinney v. the Commonwealth, decided on October 3, 1878, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upholds Virginia’s laws prohibiting interracial marriage and affirms the priority of Virginia law over that of other jurisdictions. The case stems from the marriage between Andrew Kinney, a black man, and Mahala Miller, a white woman.
