Court of Petty Appeals: Law Student Driver v. Commander in Chief Donald Trump, National Guard Parking Enforcement

 Law Student Driver

 v.

Commander in Chief Donald Trump, National Guard Parking Enforcement

78 U.Va 3 (2025)

Kaufmann, J., delivers the opinion of the Court.

 It is common knowledge that the unfortunate souls who are not lucky enough to live in Pav or Ivy are forced to drive to school and park on campus for an exorbitant cost. Those with daddy’s money can afford preferred parking in the D3 lot, but the rest must settle for the Blue Lot (“Poor People’s Parking”, or PPP). The inconvenience of the PPP on a normal day cannot be overstated, so the facts of this case are particularly startling.

On August 26, students flocked to the Law School for their second day of classes. When the drivers arrived, they were met with way more cars parked than normal. Students struggled to find spots in both the D3 lot and the PPP. One such student texted her friends at 9:39 a.m., “Love paying $400 for there to not be a single parking spot 😍😍”

Student Affairs sent an email later that day explaining the cause of the crowded lots—“two events that were scheduled for other units at the University, with parking for attendees in the Blue Lot [PPP].” We suspect, but cannot confirm, that the “other units at the University” were the JAG School.

The “parking crunch,” as the Student Affairs email so eloquently put it, continued into the following day, causing D3 parkers to move into the PPP and PPP parkers to be completely pushed out.[1] During the chaos, National Guard Parking Enforcement (the “National Guard”) continued to ticket cars as usual.

One student, who was ticketed for parking in the PPP (“Law Student Driver” or “LSD”), is a 1L and arrived late to his first Torts class with Professor Abraham because of the “crunch.” LSD subsequently brought suit in the District Court for Petty Claims, raising a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress against the event sponsors and a trespass claim against the National Guard.

The District Court granted both defendants’ motions to dismiss, and LSD appealed. We granted cert, anticipating other similarly situated students to come forth with the same claims. We now reverse. The Court will first address the IIED claim and then the trespass claim.

I

In their motion to dismiss, the event-sponsors argue that while LSD may have experienced emotional distress due to the lack of parking, there were no facts included in the complaint to support the intent element of an IIED claim.

This is simply not true, and we are baffled that the district court entertained such a frivolous argument. The event-sponsors are surely familiar with the deplorable parking conditions of the PPP and the lack of space.[2] Yet, they permitted, and even encouraged, the event-attendees to park there. Knowing that most law students don’t come to school until 10AM, they scheduled their event for early in the morning, so the event-attendees could take spots before the students had a chance. This is clearly an intentional move by the event-sponsors to get a rise out of the law students, including LSD. What other motive could there have been?

We also cannot overstate the emotional distress LSD has suffered because of the parking crunch. Imagine arriving to school early, being forced to spend 15 minutes searching for parking, finally finding one in the PPP, making the hajj to the Law School, being seven minutes late to Abraham’s Torts, making a disappointed trek back to the car to go wallow at home, only to be beaten down once more by the National Guard ticket.[3] The Court is surprised LSD had the mental capacity to prepare this suit. We would not have been surprised if this incident caused a hospital visit.

II

Turning to the claim against the National Guard Parking Enforcement, LSD argues that the placement of a paper ticket on his vehicle was a physical trespass onto his property. In response, the National Guard contends that LSD’s admission in his complaint that he was parked in the PPP, despite having a D3 lot permit, supports an affirmative defense of consent. In other words, the National Guard argues that they were authorized, or had consent, to place the ticket on LSD’s car because LSD was parked in the wrong lot.

This is an easy argument for the Court to resolve. The capacity to give consent lies with the owner of the property at issue, not whatever evil entity gave the National Guard the green light to ticket people during this trying time. LSD also makes a terrific mistake-of-law defense here.[4] LSD was under the impression that the two-week grace period for parking still existed. Yes, you heard the Court correctly: The aforementioned evil entity has abandoned the parking grace period—ticketing now begins on the first day of classes![5] Since this rule change was not well-advertised and because LSD in no way, shape, or form consented to the placement of the ticket on his vehicle, the National Guard’s affirmative defense fails.

The National Guard also argues in the alternative that LSD cannot be granted relief because he failed to mitigate his damages. This Court has considered mitigation in the parking context before and concluded that “mitigation is only necessary where it would reasonably solve the problem at a low cost.” Students v. Parking Enforcement, 75 U.Va 13 (2022).

To determine whether low-cost mitigation was possible here, the Court will look to the “best advice” Student Affairs offered in their August 27 email: “For D3 permit holders, give yourself plenty of time. Park in a [PPP] spot if you cannot find a space in the D3 lot.”

Hmmm. Any first-year law student can identify a circular argument when they see one, or a zero, and so can this Court. In essence, LSD was punished for attempting to mitigate his damages in the first place. We see no logical reason for further penalizing LSD, and we see every single reason, and some double reasons, to penalize the National Guard for its—dare I say—improper deployment.

III

In sum, LSD’s complaint was clearly sufficient to state IIED and trespass claims that are plausible on their face. [insert funny “your face” joke]. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Berklich, J., Concurring.

Defendants JAG and the National Guard Parking Enforcement (“NGPE”)  have, perhaps wisely, not addressed plaintiff’s arguments attacking the “event parking emergency” status authorizing NGPE to operate on shared Law School / Jag School grounds. It is obvious, the parking emergency is one of the JAG School’s own creation, and the Law School’s complicity in furthering the regime does not excuse the inappropriateness of NGPE’s actions. Without the event, there would be no emergency, and the “disgraceful conditions” of PPP and D3 would be nonexistent.

However, the Court does not contemplate this self-caused impetus, or examine its validity as an excuse to trot out the NGPE. But the forgiving of tickets given to unwitting law students, the large signs proclaiming “event parking,” and the relentless presence of NGPE wielding a temporary authority, suggests that these actions on behalf of JAG are motivated by political theater. Instead of a “parking emergency,” one could easily conclude that the real intent here is the embarrassment and intimidation of law students. The Court of Petty Appeals does not reach this issue, but should incidents of this nature rise to its attention again, defendants can be sure that these factors will be taken into account.

[1] The student mentioned before was forced to “[p]ark at Harris Teeter 🥰”

[2] Again, we cannot confirm, but it was the JAG School.

[3] The Court asked for supplementary briefing on the question of whether Professor Abraham called LSD “stupid” or a “delinquent” upon entering the classroom. Abraham did not use those words, but he did stop class, ask why LSD’s face was so red and then “what is the assignment of error?” all before LSD sat down. 

[4] Shout out to Professor Darryl Brown for mentioning this 80 times on the first day of Crim, so that LSD could rely on it here.

[5] If anyone important is reading this, please please stick up to the evil entity for us. We need all the help we can get.