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6. Parties’ Expectations or Business Understanding or Usage
Importantly, this last factor asks whether the claims “aris[e] out of ‘a natural grouping or
common nucleus of operative facts.’” See Funny Guy, 293 Va. at 156 (quoting Restatement,
supra, § 24 cmt. b). The circuit court concluded that “[t]he parties’ business understanding and
usage . . . support[ed] a finding that each unpaid water bill [wa]s its own transaction that
create[d] its own payment dispute because each bill create[d] its own payment . . . due for each
different billing period.”
D. Application of These Principles in this Case
We consider the circuit court’s analysis with the applicable standard of review in mind—
deferring to factual findings unless “plainly wrong or without evidentiary support,” Cornell, 301
Va. at 349 (quoting Massenburg, 298 Va. at 216), and reviewing legal conclusions de novo, see
Lane, 297 Va. at 653. The six factors provided in Funny Guy guide our analysis, but no single
factor, by itself, is dispositive. Funny Guy teaches that at the heart of this analysis is the
fundamental goal of “uncovering the true underlying dispute between the parties.” Funny Guy,
293 Va. at 155.
The circuit court’s findings on the time, space, origin, and motivation factors are not
plainly wrong or unsupported by the record. As for the fifth factor, convenient trial unit, we
observe that the unpaid bills easily “fit within a single factual narrative” and, therefore, form a
convenient trial unit. See id. This conclusion is irrefutably demonstrated by the fact that the
City filed a complaint grouping the unpaid bills together in a single claim.7
7 The amended complaint provides that the City “continuously furnished water and sewer
services” to Seaview “from May of 2021 through April of 2023” and that Seaview “is
responsible for payment of monthly utility bill[s] totaling $98,480.68.” It did not set forth a
separate claim for each month of unpaid services. Jump to an indexed page (12 of 12)