Chap. 128.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3394 of the Code of Vir-
ginia. (S B 233]
Approved March 4, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion thirty-three hundred and ninety-four of the Code of Virginia be
amended an re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 3394. General indexes for clerks’ offices—There shall be
kept in every clerk’s office in this Commonwealth a modern, family
name, or ledgerized alphabetical key-table general index to all deed
books, miscellaneous liens, will books, judgment dockets and court
order books, and it shall be the duty of the clerk to enter therein
daily, with pen and best quality of ink, or typewriter using indelible
ribbons, all instruments admitted to record, indexing each instrument
in the name or names of all parties appearing therein who are thereby
shown to be affected by said instrument, and using a separate line
for each and where any conveyance is made by a trustee or commis-
sioner, or person other than the owner, or is a partition of lands,
where said land is devised, it shall be indexed in the name of said
party or parties and also in the name of the previous owner or owners.
All deed books, miscellaneous liens, will books, judgment dockets
and court order books shall be numbered, or otherwise adequately
designated, and the said clerk, upon the delivery of any writing to
him for record required by law to be recorded, shall daily index the
same, upon such general index in the manner hereinbefore required,
and when said writing has been actually transcribed on the said book,
shall add to said general index the number of the book in which, and
the page on which, said writing is recorded.

Provided, however, that the judge of any court (in term or vaca-
tion) in the clerk’s office of which deeds, trust deeds and other docu-
ments conveying or affecting the title to real estate are now recorded,
may by an order entered for that purpose, dispense with the herein-
above requirements that the clerk shall enter in the general index
daily, all instruments admitted to record, and order in neu thereof,
that “the clerk on receipt of such writing for recordation, shall forth-
with index the same in a separate book, to be known as ‘Daily Index
of Receipts of Deeds for Recordation’”. After the entry of such
order by the court, all such instruments as are mentioned in this
proviso, when so indexed in the clerk’s office of the said court, shall
have the same force and effect as though indexed in the general index.
The clerk of such court shall cause all such instruments to be indexed
in the general index within fifteen days from the date the same are
admitted to record; provided, further, that the judge of any court
of record, in term or vacation, may make such order or orders as
may be deemed advisable as to the time and method of the indexing
of the order books in the clerk’s office of such court and shall have
full power to dispense entirely with a general index for court orders.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage.