Chap. 69.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 437 of the Code of Virginia
having reference to the periodical appointment of assessors to assess
lands and lots, as amended by subsequent acts.

Approved February 28, 1910.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
four hundred and thirty-seven of the Code of Virginia, relating to the
periodical appointment of assessors to assess lands and lots, as amended
by an act approved March fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, as
amended by an act approved December tenth, ninetcen hundred and three,
as amended by an act approved March seventeenth, nineteen hundred and
six, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§137. It shall be the duty of the circuit courts of the counties and of
cities of the second class having no corporation court, and of the corpora-
tion or hustings courts of the cities, or of the judges of said courts in vaca-
tion, on or before the first day of January in the year nineteen hundred
and five, and every fifth ycar thereafter, to appoint proper persons to
assess the value of all lands and lots, together with the improvements
thereon, within their respective jurisdictions: provided, that there shall be
but one assessor for each corporation, except the city of Richmond,
where there shall be three; and except further, that all cities having a
population of fifteen thousand may have two assessors, and for each
county there shall be as many assessors as there are commissioners of the
revenue. Every person appointed an assessor shall be a resident of the
county or corporation and district for which he is appointed. In those
counties in which two or more assessors are to be appointed, the court, or
the judge thereof in vacation, shall appoint one for each district in which
there is a commissioner of the revenue, and if at any time the court, or
the judge in vacation, shall be satisfied that any assessor appointed under
this act will not, or that from any cause he cannot, perform the duties
devolved on him within the time prescribed, the court, or the judge in
vacation, may wholly supersede him and appoint another in his place, or
may appoint one or more assistants to aid him in his duties, as shall
be deemed most expedient; but before any person thus appointed shall
enter upon the duties of his office he shall take the oath prescribed by the
Constitution and execute the bond prescribed by section four hundred and
thirty-eight. But this section shall not apply to the assessment of railway
or canal corporations, or of coal or other mineral lands, the assessment
of which is otherwise provided for by law.

Any action taken under the provisions of this act by a judge in vaca-
tion shall he certified by the judge to the clerk of the court, who shall
enter the certificate of the judge in the book of his office in which Com-
monwealth’s orders are entered.

All appointments of assessors and assistant assessors heretofore made
by judges in vacation, so far as the same were authorized to be made by
courts, in compliance with the provisions of section four hundred and
thirty-seven of the Code of Virginia, as amended by chapter three hun-
dred and nineteen of the acts of assembly, nineteen hundred and six,
approved March seventeenth, nineteen hundred and six, are hereby con-
firmed and declared to be as valid and binding as they or like appoint-
ments would be if made under this act.
Inasmuch as the present year is one for the reassessment of lands and
lots, and the work of reassessment has already commenced, and in various
places there is urgent need of the appointment of an assistant to the
assessor, and, to the end that such appointments may be made con-
veniently and in due season, it is necessary that the judges have the
power to make such appointments in the vacation of the court, this act
is declared to be an emergency act, and shall take effect from its passage.