Judge Hoxie To Sit On Supreme Court For One Case

Nineteenth Judicial Circuit (Barbour and Taylor Counties) Judge Thomas B. Hoxie will sit by temporary assignment on the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia for one case on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

When a Supreme Court Justice is unable to serve in a case, Article VIII Section 2 of the Constitution of West Virginia allows the chief justice to assign a circuit court or intermediate court judge to participate in all hearings, conferences, and votes on that case. Judge Hoxie will fill in for Justice William R. Wooton, who is recused from WVSSAC v. Hon. Fry, No 24-32. The Rule 19 argument will begin at 1 p.m.

Rule 19 arguments involve assignments of error in the application of settled law, claims of an unsustainable exercise of discretion where the law governing that discretion is settled, claims of insufficient evidence or a result against the weight of the evidence, cases involving a narrow issue of law, and cases in which a hearing is required by law.

Governor Jim Justice appointed Judge Hoxie to the bench in February 2023. In May 2024, he was elected to an eight-year term that will begin January 1, 2025.

Judge Hoxie grew up in Philippi, WV, and graduated from Philip Barbour High School.

  He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science from Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, and a law degree from West Virginia University College of Law.

Judge Hoxie practiced law in Barbour and Taylor Counties until he was elected Barbour County Prosecuting Attorney in 2016. He was re-elected in 2020 and served as prosecutor until he was appointed to the bench.