A trial court in West Virginia submitted a certified question to that state's Supreme Court, asking whether the "wrongful conduct rule" is applicable in West Virginia. Under the wrongful conduct rule, a plaintiff may not recover damages from a defendant for injuries resulting from the plaintiff's own unlawful conduct or immoral act. At least 13 states have adopted the wrongful conduct rule. In fact, the West Virginia legislature adopted a statutory version of the wrongful conduct rule that became effective in May 2015, but that statue cannot be applied retroactively to the cases at hand. The trial court's certified question was whether, as a matter of common law, the wrongful conduct rule should be applied in West Virginia court cases that were filed before the statute became effective.