Chap. 405.—An ACT to provide for the incorporation of associations or societies
for charitable and benevolent purposes, and for the care, custody, and mainte-
nance of and for the prevention of cruelty to children.

Approved March 29, 1902.

1. Be it enacted by the gencral assembly of Virginia, That any five or
more persons of full age, who shall be citizens of and residents within
this State, who shall desire to associate themselves together for the pur-
pose of organizing and maintaining an association or society for charitable
or benevolent purposes, or for the care, custody, and maintenance of, and
the prevention of cruelty to, children, may make, sign, and acknowledge
before any person authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds in this
State, and file in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth, and also
in the office of the clerk of the corporation or circuit court of the city or
county in which the business of the society or association is to be con-
ducted, a certificate in writing, in which shall be stated the name of the
title by which such society or association shall be known in law, the par-
ticular business and object of such society, the number of trustees, direc-
tors, or managers who are to manage the same, and the names of the
trustees, directors, or managers who are to manage its affairs for the first
year of its existence; but such certificate shall not be filed until the judge
of the circuit or corporation court of the city or county wherein the busi-
ness and principal office of the said society or association is to be located
shall have certified the persons named in the said certificate are persons
of good moral! character and suitable and proper persons to be incorpo-
rated for the purposes set forth in the said certificate.

2. Upon the filing of the certificate aforesaid, with the endorsement
thereon of the said judge, the persons who shall have signed and ac-
knowledged such certificate, and their associates and successors, shall
thereupon, by virtue of this act, be a body politic and corporate by the
name stated in such certificate, and as such shall have power to have per-
petual succession by its corporate name, to sue and be sued, complain and
defend in any court of law and equity, to make and use a common seal,
which may be affixed by making an impression directly on the paper, and
alter the same at pleasure; to appoint such officers, managers, and agents
as the business of the corporation may require; to make by-laws not in-
consistent with the laws of this State or the United States for the man-
agement of its property and the regulation of its affairs; to contract and
be contracted with; to take and hold, by gift, purchase, grant, devise,
or bequest, any property, real or personal, and the same to dispose of at
pleasure; but such corporation shall not, in its corporate capacity, hold
real estate, the yearly income derived from which shall exceed the sum of
fifty thousand dollars, but shall exercise any corporate powers necessary
to the purposes above enumerated and given.

3. Any society so incorporated may prefer a claim before any court,
tribunal, or magistrate having jurisdiction for the violation of any law
relating to or affecting children, and may aid in presenting the law and
facts before such court, tribunal, or magistrate in any proceeding taken.
Any such corporation may be appointed guardian of the person of any
minor child during its minority by a court of equity of this State, or by
the judge thereof in vacation, and may receive and retain any child at
its own expense, upon commitment by any court or judge of this State,
or by agreement with its parent, guardian, or other proper custodian.

4. All magistrates, constables, sheriffs, and officers of police in any
city or incorporated town shall, as occasion may require, aid such society
or association so incorporated, its officers, members, or agents, in the en-
forcement of all laws which now are, or may hereafter be, enacted relating
to or affecting children.

5. This act shall be in force on and after July first, nineteen hundred
and two.