Marble Technologies, Inc. v. City of Hampton
Virginia Supreme Court
690 S.E.2d 84 (2010)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Virginia passed a law requiring municipalities to protect water quality by designating certain lands as Chesapeake Bay Preservation Areas (preservation areas). The state adopted regulations delineating criteria municipalities could use to designate these preservation areas. The regulations stated specifically that local governments were to use these criteria. To implement this law, the City of Hampton (defendant) amended its zoning ordinances. One such amendment added a land’s inclusion in the federal Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS) as a factor in the city’s determinations of which lands would be preservation areas. The state regulations did not list inclusion in the CBRS as a permissible criterion. Marble Technologies, Inc. (Marble) (plaintiff) owned land included in the CBRS. The city’s amendment meant that Marble’s land would be a preservation area, solely due to its CBRS status. Marble sued the city, asserting that the city’s amendment was impermissible because it used a factor not expressly or impliedly authorized by the state, thus violating Dillon’s rule.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kinser, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.