Chap. 185.—An ACT to provide for the recovery, by motion, of taxes
and certain debts due the commonwealth, for the payment of which

pers purporting to be genuine coupons of the commonwealth have
been tendered.

Approved May 12, 1887.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
all taxes, including taxes on licenses, now due or which may
hereafter become duc to the commonwealth, in payment of
which any paper or instrument purporting to be a coupon
detached from a bond of this State, shall have been or may
hereafter he tendered and not aceented arg nnumant and nat
otherwise paid, may be recovered in the circuit court having
jurisdiction over the county or corporation in which said taxes
shall have been assessed; or if the tender was made 10 the
auditor of public accounts in payment of taxes, which he is
authorized by law to receive, the said taxes may be recovered
in the cireuit court of the city of Richmond.

2. The court shall have jurisdiction without regard to the
amount of the taxes claimed, and though the amount be less
than twenty dollars. ,

3. The proceeding shall be by motion in the name of the
commonwealth on ten days’ notice, and shall be instituted
and prosecuted by the attorney for the commonwealth of the
county or corporation in which the proceeding is, or if it be
instituted by direction of the auditor of public accounts in
the circuit court of the city of Richmond.

4. The notice may be served in any county or corporation
in the State in the mode prescribed by the first section of
chapter one hundred and sixty-four of the Code (eeition of
eighteen hundred and seventy-three); or it may be served
on any agent of the defendant in the county or corporation
in which the proceeding is, and the word “agent,” as here
used, shall include any persou who shall have made the ten-
der aforesaid on behalf of the defendant; or if there be no
known agent of the defendant in the said county or corpora-
tion, it may be served by publishing the same one time in
some newspaper printed in the county or city where the tax
was assessed; or if there be no paper printed in such county
or city, then in some newspaper published in some county or
city nearest to the county or city where such tax was as-
sessed.

5. The motion may be tried or heard by the court or jury
as motions in other civil cases. If the defendant relies ona
tender of coupons as payment of the taxes claimed, he shall
plead the same spccifically, and in writing, and file with the
plea the coupons averred therein to have been tendered, and
the clerk shall carefully preserve them. Upon such plea
filed, the burden of proving the tender, and the genuineness
of the coupons shall be on the defendant. If tno tender and
the genuineness of the coupons be established, judgment shall
be for the defendant on the plea of tender. In such case the
clerk shall write the word “proved,” and thereunder his name
in bis official character across the face of the coupons, and
transmit them, together with a certificate of the court that
they have been proven in the case, to the auditor of public
accounts, who shall deliver the coupons to the second auditor,
receiving therefor the check of the second auditor upon the
treasurer, which check he shall pay into the treasury to the
credit of the proper tax account.

6. It the defendant fails in his defence, and the taxes
claimed are found to be duc the State, any coupons filed by
him with a plea of tender (and not spurious) shall be returned
to him, and there shall be judyment for the commonwealth
for the aggregate amount of the taxes due, and the interest
thereon from the time they became due till the date of the
judgment, witb interest on the said aggregate amount from
the date of the judgment until payment and costs.

7. No antecedent licn of the commonwealth for the taxes
for which any judgment is rendered, shall be deemed to be
merged in the judgment, or otherwise impaired by the re-
covery of the same, but such lien shall continue in force not-
withstanding the judgment.

8. Every such judgment shall be docketed as prescribed
by law in other cases, and the clerk shall issue execution
thereon directed to the sheriff of any county (or sergeant of
any city) who shall account for the money collected thereon
to the auditor of public accounts.

9. Should coupons be tendered the officer in satisfaction of
said execution, he shall note the fact of such tender upon the
execution, and return it to the clerk’s office, and thereupon
the auditor of public accounts may direct an action to be
brought upon the judgment. This action shall be instituted
and prosecuted in the mode hereinbefore prescribed fur ac-
tions to recover judgments for taxes, and similar actions may
be instituted whenever coupons are tendered in satisfaction
of any judgment obtained by the commonwealth under the
provisions of the act.

10. The clerk of the court in which any such judgment is
rendered in behalf of the commonwealth, shall, as soon as it
is rendéred, transmit a certified abstract thereof to the audi-
tor of public accounts, who shall record the same in a book to
be kept for that purpose.

11. Immediately after the passage of this act the county
and city treasurers and all other officers authorized by law to
collect or receive money for taxes due the commonwealth,
including license taxes, shall report to the commonwealth’s at-
torneys ot their respective counties and cities, and also to the
auditor of public accounts, the names of all persons assessed
or liable therein for taxes due the commonwealth who have
heretofore tendered (otherwise than for identification and
verification) coupons for such taxes, and which taxes remain
unpaid, the amount of the taxes due, on what account, and
when they became payable, and a description, as far as pos-
sible, of the coupons tendered, and when tendered; and they
shull thereatter make like reports whenever and as soon as
any such tender may be made. As soon as the auditor of
public accounts shall receive such reports, be shall credit the
proper officer with the taxes named therein for which cou-
pons were tendered.

12. The attorneys for the commonwealth and the attorney-
general, when it is bis duty under this act to represent the
commonwealth in any case in the circuit court of the city of
Richmond, upon such report being made to them, or when-
ever they are otherwise informed of any such tender having
been made, shall forthwitb institute and prosecute such pro-
ceedings as are hereinbefore required.

13. In any caso inStituted under the provisions of this act
in which there is a judgment for the commonwealth, a fee
of ten dollars shall be allowed the attorney for the common.-
wealth, or the attorney-gen“ral, as the case may be; which
fee, and the fees of the clerk and other officers for services
rendered in the case, as well as such other costs as are al-
lowed by law in other cases in which the commonwealth is
a party, shall be taxed in the costs against the defendant.
The commenwealth shall not be liable for any fees or costs
in any proceedings under this act.

14. If any officer fails to perform any duty required of
him by this act, he shall be fined not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars.

15. This act shall be in force from its passage.