---
type: "Bill"
title: "Permissible venue; personal injury and wrongful death actions, appointment of administrator."
description: "Permissible venue; personal injury and wrongful death actions; appointment of administrator on behalf of estate of decedent. Provides that in a personal injury or wrongful death action in which an administrator is appointed on behalf of the estate of a decedent, permissible venue shall lie only in a county or city in which venue would have been properly laid if the person for whom such appointment is made had survived. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference and is identical to SB 138."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2024"
identifier: "HB 779"
citation: "Virginia HB 779 (2024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Katrina Callsen"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 23
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2024-01-09"
last_action: "2024-03-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/30d7d942-2dfc-4cc3-ae73-f92667ea88f1"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+HB779"
source_hash: "ae61064619dff87953dbcbf7418f9b706f28491d3f9e847c3b6f40b80dc860a8"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 779 (2024) — Permissible venue; personal injury and wrongful death actions, appointment of administrator.

Permissible venue; personal injury and wrongful death actions; appointment of administrator on behalf of estate of decedent. Provides that in a personal injury or wrongful death action in which an administrator is appointed on behalf of the estate of a decedent, permissible venue shall lie only in a county or city in which venue would have been properly laid if the person for whom such appointment is made had survived. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference and is identical to SB 138.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0050** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+CHAP0050)
2. **HB779ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB779ER)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24102436D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB779)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N) — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice (9-Y 0-N) — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N) — **98–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice (21-Y 0-N) — **21–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Katrina Callsen — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2024-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24102436D `filing, introduction`
- **2024-01-09** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-19** Assigned Courts sub: Civil `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-22** Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N)
- **2024-01-26** Reported from Courts of Justice (21-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-01-30** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2024-01-31** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2024-02-01** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-02-01** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-02** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2024-02-02** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-14** Reported from Courts of Justice (9-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-16** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2024-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2024-02-19** Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-22** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2024-02-22** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB779ER) `passage`
- **2024-02-22** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2024-02-25** Signed by President `passage`
- **2024-03-01** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 1, 2024 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
- **2024-03-01** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 8, 2024 `executive-receipt`
- **2024-03-08** Approved by Governor-Chapter 50 (effective 7/1/24) `executive-signature`
- **2024-03-08** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0050)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/30d7d942-2dfc-4cc3-ae73-f92667ea88f1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).