Chap. 69.- An ACT to stay the Collection of Debts for a limited period,
Pissed March 2 1866,

Whereas the war which was recently waged for several
years in toe state of Virginia, in its: progress and results
swept ont of existence the property in slaves (which consti-
tuted avery Jarge proportion of the wealth of the people),
as well as avery large amount of other personal property,
wid at the same time annihilated the only curreney which had
circulated for over three vears, together with the stocks and
securities, growing out of the war. in which the people had
mide large mvestinents, and either destroyed or greatly
npared the valne of all other stocks and securities, so that
but little is new Teft to the people except their lands, which,
for want of efficient Jabor, and ino many large distric ‘ts, for
want of stock, unplements, horses and Tuil lines, cannot. be
sticcesstully cultivated, and as a consequence of this condition
of things, there exists an unprecedented searcity of money
among the people of the state: and whereas it cannot be
questioned that this state of general embarrassment and dis-
tress presents the strongest appeal tor legislative interference
to prevent the majust and ruinous sacrifice of property that
would inevitably result from forced sales under such cireum-
stances; and while this general assembly recognize their
Imperative duty to respect. and ober the constitutional pro-
Visions which prohibit the enactment of any law impairing
the obligation of contracts, they beheve that, when construed
with reference to the objects of those provisions, and in the
light of principles recognized and acted upon by the courts
of justice at the time of the adoption of the constitution of
the United States, as well as before and since that time, those
provisions do not forbid them trom granting a temporary
Ruspension of remedies, in such a state of things as the
present, in order to prevent the cruel and ruinous results
which would ensue without such interposition, and especially
as it only requires that creditors, while their right to ultimate
payment is held inviolable, shall submit to a course to which
they might well be constrained by the instincts of natural
justice and humanity: Therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
while this act remains in torce, no execution, vendition! ex-
ponas, attachment upon a decree or order for the payment of
money, or other process to compel the payment of money, or
the sale of property for that purpose, shall be issued, or, if
heretotore issued, shall be proceeded with; nor shall there be
any sale under a deed of trust, mortgage; pledge or other
security, nor under any judgment, decree or order for the
payment of money, except in the cases hereafter provided
for, until the first day of January, eighteen hundred and
sixty-eight.

2. The foregoing section shall not apply to any case in
which the debt or liability sought to be enforced was con-
tracted or incurred since the second day of April, eighteen
hundred and sixty-five, or in which the commonwealth 1s the
creditor or party beneficially entitled; or to taxes, levies or
assessments due to a county or corporation; or in which an
officer of a county or corporation is liable for taxes, levies or
other moneys collected, or which should have been collected
by him for such county or corporation; or in which any rail-
road or other internal improvement company may be liable;
or in which the parties interested shall consent to a sale; or
in which, if the parties, or any of them, be incompctent to
consent, a circuit court, or a judge in vacation, having juris-
diction of the subject, shall determine that the interest of
such parties would be promoted by a sale; or to any case of
alimony, or of dower, or of interest in lieu of dower; or to
any allowance or provision for the maintenance or education
of females or infants; or to any payment of rent, or of an
annuity falling due after April second, eighteen hundred and
sixty-five; or to any proceeding to compel an officer of the
state, or of a county or corporation, or a commissioner or re-
ceiver, or other officer of a court, or any fiduciary, to account
for, pay or disburse money received by him since April
second, eighteen hundred and sixty-five; or to any proceed-
ing against a fraudulent purchaser or donee, or against pro-
perty in his hands, for a debt or Nability of the vendor or
donor; or to any proceeding against a debtor or party bound,
who has removed, is removing, or intends to remove his
effects out of this state, with intent to delay, hinder or de-
fraud his creditors, or those to whom he is liable: or to any
proceeding under sections three, four or five of chapter one
hundred and fifty-one of the Code of eighteen hundred and
sixty; nor to any case hereafter provided for in this act: nor
shall anything herein contained be so construed as to affect
existing laws now in force as to the collection of sheriffs’ and
clerks’ fees, or against foreign debtors. But nothing in this
secuion shall deprive the sureties of any officer of the state,
or of a county or corporation, of the benetit of the tirst see-
tion of this act in respect to any lability accrued prior to
April second. eighteen hundred snd sixty-five. Whenever it
shall appear to any circuit, county or corporation court, upon
a petition filed therein, that any miner, widow, unmarried
woman or insane person is dependent tor a support upon the
interest on or principal of any debt, the collection of which
is stayed by this act. such court may ascertain, through one
of its commissioners in chancery, what amount is necessary
tor the support of the petitioner or petitioners; what amount
each debtor, if there be more than one, shall pay, assessing
the whole upon them ratably, and whether the sum so as-
sessed upon each shall be of the principal or interest; and
the report of the commissioner, When approved by the court,
shall be entered of record by the clerk thereof; and any
debtor who, after being served with notice of the amount
thus assessed upon him, shall fail to pay the same within
thirty days thereafter, the same shall be recoverable in the
manner prescribed for the recovery of interest. by the fitth
section of this act.

The commissioner, of whom a report shall be required
under the preceding paragraph, shall post notice thereof, as
required by law in the settlement of fiduciaries.

The cost of such proceedings to be subject to the order of
the court.

3. No security or undertaking of any sort, the considera-
tion of which is a debt contracted or liability incurred prior
to the second day of April, cighteen hundred and sixty-five,
shall, though executed or assumed after that day, be consid-
ered as a debt contracted or liability incurred atter that day,
within the meaning of this act. And when a part of the
consideration of any security or undertaking of any sort is a
debt contracted or a liability incurred prior to the second
day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, such security
or under taking, ‘though executed or assumed on or after that
day, shall, as to so much of the money due thereon, be con-
sidered as a debt contracted or liability incurred before that
day, within the meaning of this aet.

4. Upon all debts contracted prior to the said second day
of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and payable, or on
which interest is payable, before the first January, eighteen
hundred and sixty-six, there shall be paid, on the first day of
January, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and on the first
day of January of each succeeding year while this act shall
remain in foree, a sum equal to the interest for one year on
the principal debt, or on so much thereof as shall remain un-
paid. Where the debt or interest thereon does not become
payable until after the first day of January, eighteen hundred
and sixty-six, interest from the time of payment, or trom the
time from which interest is payable, shall be paid on the said
debt on the next succeeding first day of January; and one
year’s interest shall be paid ‘thercon on each succeeding first
day of January while this act remains in force.
9. If any party shall fail to pay any instalment of interest,
as provided by the fourth section, it shall be lawful for the
party to whom the same is payable, to recover it by motion,
on twenty-days’ notice. before any court or justice having
jurisdiction; which notice may be given during the term of
a court, and to any day of the term; and upon the judgment
therefor execution may issue as if this act had not been
passed: provided, however, that no security shall be taken
under such execution, and the same shall be endorsed accord-
ingly by the clerk or justice issuing the same.

6. If any execution shall have been levied before the pas-
sage of this act, the property levied on shall be restored to
the defendant. but shall remain subject to the lien of the exe-
cution, unless the defendant shall discharge the said lien by
giving to the oflicer holding the execution. or to the clerk of
the court from which it issued, a bond with good security,
payable to the commonwealth, in a penalty double the amount
due on the execution, with condition to pay, atter the expira-
tion of this act, to the parties entitled, the amount which
will be due on the execution; which bond shall be filed in
the clerk’s office.

7. The period daring which this act shall remain in force
shall be excluded from the computation of the time within
which, by the operation of any statute or rule of Jaw, it may
be necessary to commence any proceeding to preserve or
prevent the loss of any right or remedy.

8. Any bond provided for by this act may be executed by
the party interested, or by any other person.

% The act entitled an act staying the collection of certain
debts, passed January twenty-three, eighteen hundred and
sixty-live, and the amendment thereof, passed June twenty-
three, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, are hereby repealed,
except as to the counties of Accomack and Northampton,
and the city of Norfolk, and the city of Portsmouth, to
which this act shall not apply. and as to which the said acts
of January twenty-three, eighteen hundred and sixty-five.
and the amendment thereof, shall remain in force; except
only that the sixth section of the said act of January. twenty-
three, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

“$6. Nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to
interfere with or abridge the law now in force in relation to
attachments and actions of detinue and trover; nor in rela-
tion to injuries or torts; nor in relation to actions of eject-
ment and unlawthl entry and detainer; nor in relation to the
prosecution of criminal offences and the collection of tines,
taxes, licenses. county levies, and all debts due the common-
wealth; but the same may be proceeded in as now provided
for by law; nor shall this act apply to Habilities of sherits,
constables, or other public officers, either to the state, coun-
ties, corporations or individuals; nor to attorneys at law, for
moneys collected; nor to debts contracted after the twenty-
sixth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-one; nor to
debts or deeds of trust executed after the said twenty-sixth
day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-one: but payment
of and sales under the same, may be enforced and proceeded
in as if this act had not been passed; nor shall the time
during which this act is in toree be computed in any case in
which the statute of limitation may come in question.”

10. The act of January twenty-third, cichteen hundred
and sixty-five, and the act amendatory ther eof, passed June
twenty- third, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, referred to in
the last section, are hereby repealed, except as provided in
that section; but nothing herein shall be construed to impair
any lien acquired under the said acts, or either of them.

11. The act passed December nineteenth, ei¢hteen hundred
and sixty-five, entitled an act staving the collection of debts
for a limited period, 1s hereby repealed.

2. ‘This act shall be in foree trom its passage.

Chap. 69.- An ACT to stay the Collection of Debts for a limited period,
Pissed March 2 1866,

Whereas the war which was recently waged for several
years in toe state of Virginia, in its: progress and results
swept ont of existence the property in slaves (which consti-
tuted avery Jarge proportion of the wealth of the people),
as well as avery large amount of other personal property,
wid at the same time annihilated the only curreney which had
circulated for over three vears, together with the stocks and
securities, growing out of the war. in which the people had
mide large mvestinents, and either destroyed or greatly
npared the valne of all other stocks and securities, so that
but little is new Teft to the people except their lands, which,
for want of efficient Jabor, and ino many large distric ‘ts, for
want of stock, unplements, horses and Tuil lines, cannot. be
sticcesstully cultivated, and as a consequence of this condition
of things, there exists an unprecedented searcity of money
among the people of the state: and whereas it cannot be
questioned that this state of general embarrassment and dis-
tress presents the strongest appeal tor legislative interference
to prevent the majust and ruinous sacrifice of property that
would inevitably result from forced sales under such cireum-
stances; and while this general assembly recognize their
Imperative duty to respect. and ober the constitutional pro-
Visions which prohibit the enactment of any law impairing
the obligation of contracts, they beheve that, when construed
with reference to the objects of those provisions, and in the
light of principles recognized and acted upon by the courts
of justice at the time of the adoption of the constitution of
the United States, as well as before and since that time, those
provisions do not forbid them trom granting a temporary
Ruspension of remedies, in such a state of things as the
present, in order to prevent the cruel and ruinous results
which would ensue without such interposition, and especially
as it only requires that creditors, while their right to ultimate
payment is held inviolable, shall submit to a course to which
they might well be constrained by the instincts of natural
justice and humanity: Therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
while this act remains in torce, no execution, vendition! ex-
ponas, attachment upon a decree or order for the payment of
money, or other process to compel the payment of money, or
the sale of property for that purpose, shall be issued, or, if
heretotore issued, shall be proceeded with; nor shall there be
any sale under a deed of trust, mortgage; pledge or other
security, nor under any judgment, decree or order for the
payment of money, except in the cases hereafter provided
for, until the first day of January, eighteen hundred and
sixty-eight.

2. The foregoing section shall not apply to any case in
which the debt or liability sought to be enforced was con-
tracted or incurred since the second day of April, eighteen
hundred and sixty-five, or in which the commonwealth 1s the
creditor or party beneficially entitled; or to taxes, levies or
assessments due to a county or corporation; or in which an
officer of a county or corporation is liable for taxes, levies or
other moneys collected, or which should have been collected
by him for such county or corporation; or in which any rail-
road or other internal improvement company may be liable;
or in which the parties interested shall consent to a sale; or
in which, if the parties, or any of them, be incompctent to
consent, a circuit court, or a judge in vacation, having juris-
diction of the subject, shall determine that the interest of
such parties would be promoted by a sale; or to any case of
alimony, or of dower, or of interest in lieu of dower; or to
any allowance or provision for the maintenance or education
of females or infants; or to any payment of rent, or of an
annuity falling due after April second, eighteen hundred and
sixty-five; or to any proceeding to compel an officer of the
state, or of a county or corporation, or a commissioner or re-
ceiver, or other officer of a court, or any fiduciary, to account
for, pay or disburse money received by him since April
second, eighteen hundred and sixty-five; or to any proceed-
ing against a fraudulent purchaser or donee, or against pro-
perty in his hands, for a debt or Nability of the vendor or
donor; or to any proceeding against a debtor or party bound,
who has removed, is removing, or intends to remove his
effects out of this state, with intent to delay, hinder or de-
fraud his creditors, or those to whom he is liable: or to any
proceeding under sections three, four or five of chapter one
hundred and fifty-one of the Code of eighteen hundred and
sixty; nor to any case hereafter provided for in this act: nor
shall anything herein contained be so construed as to affect
existing laws now in force as to the collection of sheriffs’ and
clerks’ fees, or against foreign debtors. But nothing in this
secuion shall deprive the sureties of any officer of the state,
or of a county or corporation, of the benetit of the tirst see-
tion of this act in respect to any lability accrued prior to
April second. eighteen hundred snd sixty-five. Whenever it
shall appear to any circuit, county or corporation court, upon
a petition filed therein, that any miner, widow, unmarried
woman or insane person is dependent tor a support upon the
interest on or principal of any debt, the collection of which
is stayed by this act. such court may ascertain, through one
of its commissioners in chancery, what amount is necessary
tor the support of the petitioner or petitioners; what amount
each debtor, if there be more than one, shall pay, assessing
the whole upon them ratably, and whether the sum so as-
sessed upon each shall be of the principal or interest; and
the report of the commissioner, When approved by the court,
shall be entered of record by the clerk thereof; and any
debtor who, after being served with notice of the amount
thus assessed upon him, shall fail to pay the same within
thirty days thereafter, the same shall be recoverable in the
manner prescribed for the recovery of interest. by the fitth
section of this act.

The commissioner, of whom a report shall be required
under the preceding paragraph, shall post notice thereof, as
required by law in the settlement of fiduciaries.

The cost of such proceedings to be subject to the order of
the court.

3. No security or undertaking of any sort, the considera-
tion of which is a debt contracted or liability incurred prior
to the second day of April, cighteen hundred and sixty-five,
shall, though executed or assumed after that day, be consid-
ered as a debt contracted or liability incurred atter that day,
within the meaning of this act. And when a part of the
consideration of any security or undertaking of any sort is a
debt contracted or a liability incurred prior to the second
day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, such security
or under taking, ‘though executed or assumed on or after that
day, shall, as to so much of the money due thereon, be con-
sidered as a debt contracted or liability incurred before that
day, within the meaning of this aet.

4. Upon all debts contracted prior to the said second day
of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and payable, or on
which interest is payable, before the first January, eighteen
hundred and sixty-six, there shall be paid, on the first day of
January, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and on the first
day of January of each succeeding year while this act shall
remain in foree, a sum equal to the interest for one year on
the principal debt, or on so much thereof as shall remain un-
paid. Where the debt or interest thereon does not become
payable until after the first day of January, eighteen hundred
and sixty-six, interest from the time of payment, or trom the
time from which interest is payable, shall be paid on the said
debt on the next succeeding first day of January; and one
year’s interest shall be paid ‘thercon on each succeeding first
day of January while this act remains in force.
9. If any party shall fail to pay any instalment of interest,
as provided by the fourth section, it shall be lawful for the
party to whom the same is payable, to recover it by motion,
on twenty-days’ notice. before any court or justice having
jurisdiction; which notice may be given during the term of
a court, and to any day of the term; and upon the judgment
therefor execution may issue as if this act had not been
passed: provided, however, that no security shall be taken
under such execution, and the same shall be endorsed accord-
ingly by the clerk or justice issuing the same.

6. If any execution shall have been levied before the pas-
sage of this act, the property levied on shall be restored to
the defendant. but shall remain subject to the lien of the exe-
cution, unless the defendant shall discharge the said lien by
giving to the oflicer holding the execution. or to the clerk of
the court from which it issued, a bond with good security,
payable to the commonwealth, in a penalty double the amount
due on the execution, with condition to pay, atter the expira-
tion of this act, to the parties entitled, the amount which
will be due on the execution; which bond shall be filed in
the clerk’s office.

7. The period daring which this act shall remain in force
shall be excluded from the computation of the time within
which, by the operation of any statute or rule of Jaw, it may
be necessary to commence any proceeding to preserve or
prevent the loss of any right or remedy.

8. Any bond provided for by this act may be executed by
the party interested, or by any other person.

% The act entitled an act staying the collection of certain
debts, passed January twenty-three, eighteen hundred and
sixty-live, and the amendment thereof, passed June twenty-
three, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, are hereby repealed,
except as to the counties of Accomack and Northampton,
and the city of Norfolk, and the city of Portsmouth, to
which this act shall not apply. and as to which the said acts
of January twenty-three, eighteen hundred and sixty-five.
and the amendment thereof, shall remain in force; except
only that the sixth section of the said act of January. twenty-
three, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

“$6. Nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to
interfere with or abridge the law now in force in relation to
attachments and actions of detinue and trover; nor in rela-
tion to injuries or torts; nor in relation to actions of eject-
ment and unlawthl entry and detainer; nor in relation to the
prosecution of criminal offences and the collection of tines,
taxes, licenses. county levies, and all debts due the common-
wealth; but the same may be proceeded in as now provided
for by law; nor shall this act apply to Habilities of sherits,
constables, or other public officers, either to the state, coun-
ties, corporations or individuals; nor to attorneys at law, for
moneys collected; nor to debts contracted after the twenty-
sixth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-one; nor to
debts or deeds of trust executed after the said twenty-sixth
day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-one: but payment
of and sales under the same, may be enforced and proceeded
in as if this act had not been passed; nor shall the time
during which this act is in toree be computed in any case in
which the statute of limitation may come in question.”

10. The act of January twenty-third, cichteen hundred
and sixty-five, and the act amendatory ther eof, passed June
twenty- third, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, referred to in
the last section, are hereby repealed, except as provided in
that section; but nothing herein shall be construed to impair
any lien acquired under the said acts, or either of them.

11. The act passed December nineteenth, ei¢hteen hundred
and sixty-five, entitled an act staving the collection of debts
for a limited period, 1s hereby repealed.

2. ‘This act shall be in foree trom its passage.