---
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 HB 779."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2024"
identifier: "SB 138"
citation: "Virginia SB 138 (2024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jennifer D. Carroll Foy"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 24
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2024-01-05"
last_action: "2024-04-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8e059ac0-15c1-45a3-a085-74e92ccb8072"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+SB138"
source_hash: "8411727c681284ef39851ea59cd553273ccd506a3136378251d190ead8cb6055"
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 SB 138 (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 HB 779.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0340** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+CHAP0340)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24101470D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+SB138)
3. **SB138ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+SB138ER)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Jennifer D. Carroll Foy — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2024-01-05** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24101470D `filing, introduction`
- **2024-01-05** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-10** Moved from Judiciary to Courts of Justice due to a change of the committee name
- **2024-02-05** Reported from Courts of Justice (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2024-02-07** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2024-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2024-02-07** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-13** Placed on Calendar
- **2024-02-13** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2024-02-13** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-16** Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-20** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2024-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2024-02-21** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-21** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-26** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2024-02-26** Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB138ER) `passage`
- **2024-02-26** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2024-02-28** Signed by President `passage`
- **2024-03-11** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 11, 2024 `enrolled`
- **2024-03-11** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 8, 2024 `executive-receipt`
- **2024-04-02** Approved by Governor-Chapter 340 (effective 7/1/24) `executive-signature`
- **2024-04-02** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0340)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8e059ac0-15c1-45a3-a085-74e92ccb8072`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).