§ 8.01-636.In what cases writ issued.

The first two categories target misuse of authority the law confers. A domestic, non-municipal corporation can face the writ for misusing or not using its corporate privileges and franchises, for exercising a privilege or franchise the law never gave it, or for obtaining its charter for a fraudulent or unauthorized purpose. A person can face the writ for misusing or not using any privilege the law conferred on them, which specifically includes practicing a profession without being duly authorized or licensed to do so.

The last two categories address people acting without any authority at all: persons acting as a corporation, other than a municipal corporation, without legal authority to do so, and any person who intrudes into or usurps a public office. That office-usurpation category comes with a limit — no writ may issue against someone currently holding office for a cause that would instead have supported a proceeding to contest their election.

The section closes with a jurisdictional guardrail: nothing in it lets any court judge the election, qualifications, or returns of members of either house of the General Assembly, keeping legislative seating disputes out of the quo warranto process entirely.