Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Re: Checking more than one box on Claim section of a Warrant-In-Debt

A so-called open account may in fact have some type of underlying written agreement(contract)initiated at the beginning of the buyer-seller relationship and, therefore, the answers to both of your questions must necessarily be yes.

Re: Checking more than one box on Claim section of a Warrant-In-Debt

I have probably signed a thousand Warrant in Debt

forms as a lawyer, and rarely if ever have I seen

judges pay attention to the boxes checked. Only

when the claim was really confusing for some

reason (I was defending in those cases) did the

judge look at the box to try to figure out what

was going on.

IF you check both boxes, you need to clearly

understand why, however, and be prepared to

explain to the judge, if it comes up.

Under the law, one is allowed to make alternative

claims called "pleading in the alternative."

For example, you can bring a lawsuit claiming

"I believe there was a contract, but if the court

does not agree with me, in the alternative, I

believe that this would qualify as an open

account as a fall-back position or legal theory."

So if the judge were to ask you about it, you

would need to be ready to explain that you

believe that one of them is true, but you also

believe that the other might apply in the

alternative. The judge will accept this because

you are allowed to make alternative legal claims.

Partly because it strikes me that it might help

explain your claim anyway, you might add some

notes under the "other" section.

Although "other" is intended for a different use,

I have from time to time put explanations in

that section.

ALSO (although not required) it is good form and

generally USEFUL to attach an affidavit

explaining in all details why you believe the

money is due. This would be a good place to

explain the circumstances and why you believe

that there are two different possible scenarios,

and you should get the money under EITHER

scenario, depending on what the court ultimately

decides are the facts in light of disputed facts.

With any kind of explanation like that, you will

not have a problem checking both boxes.

By the way, my colleague is correct. Technically

an "open account" is a special kind of contract,

in which a buyer agrees to pay for any and all

supplies or services ordered from the seller,

on an ongoing basis. So an open account contract

does NOT specify what products or services or

exact dollar amounts, but is a promise to pay

the list price for whatever supplies or services

are requested.

In practice, an open account is treated in

general district court in a very open-ended,

broad, flexible way, and I would not get too

hung up about the exact definition above. If

you have any plausible basis for claiming money,

the judge will hear your case.

Circuit Court, as compared with General District

Court, would be a lot tougher on such details.