VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Civ. No. 45.005
Issues and Allocations of Burden of Proof: Third-Party Case
There are two cases being tried by this jury.
The first case is (name of plaintiff) against (name of defendant). You should decide this case first.
In this case, the issues are:
(1) Was there a contract between (name of plaintiff) and (name of defendant)?
(2) If there was a contract, did (name of defendant) breach the contract?
(3) If (name of defendant) did breach a contract, what is the amount of damages to (name of
plaintiff) caused by the breach?
On these issues (name of plaintiff) has the burden of proof.
If, in this case of (name of plaintiff) against (name of defendant) you reach a verdict in favor of
(name of plaintiff) against (name of defendant), then you must proceed to consider the third-party
claim of (name of defendant, third-party plaintiff) against (name of third-party defendant). In this third-party case, the issues are:
(1) Was there a contract between (name of third-party plaintiff) and (name of third-party defendant)
under which (name of third-party defendant) has a duty to perform for (name of third-party plaintiff)
an act or acts for (name of plaintiff)?
(2) Did (name of third-party defendant) breach such a contract?
(3) Did any breach of such contract cause damages to (name of plaintiff) for which you have
awarded (name of plaintiff) a verdict against (name of third-party plaintiff)?
(4) If (name of third-party defendant) did breach a contract with (name of third-party plaintiff), and
such breach was a cause of all or part of the damages you found (name of plaintiff) should recover
from (name of defendant, third-party plaintiff), what is the amount of such damages that (name of
defendant, third-party plaintiff) should recover from (name of third-party defendant)?
On these issues, (name of third-party plaintiff) has the burden of proof.
History
Virginia Model Jury Instructions – Civil, Release 26, April 2026. The unannotated set, posted by the Supreme Court of Virginia at vacourts.gov; the book states that it is made available with the permission of the publisher, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.
Provenance
- Source
- vacourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- Edition
- civ-2026-04-01
- Content hash
364b194a4a9499cdce0617d4b8ac021df42a78124d5d5fa997d69bb4c192ec87
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