Chap. 304.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 6239 of the Code of Vir-
ginia. [H B 418]

Approved March 19, 1920.

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

Sec. 6239. Presumption of death from absence.—If any person,
who shall have resided in this State, go from, and do not return to
the State for seven vears successively, he shall be presumed to be dead
in any case wherein his death shall come in question, unless proof be
made that he was alive within that time. If such absence continue
and his whereabouts be unknown for a period of twenty years or
more, he shall be conclusively presumed to be dead for the purpose of
adjudicating and disposing of any funds in any case pending in a
court in which title to real estate or the proceeds thereof shall come
Mm question or be involved, and in such case the rights of the parties
shall be determined on the assumption that the supposed decedent is in
fact dead. But before any final order or decree is entered in any
such cause, in favor of the alleged heirs, devisees or legatees of the
supposed decedent, or persons claiming by, througk or under them,
or any of them, the supposed decedent shall be made Onarty defendant
in the cause, and an order of. publication shall be entered against him
in conformity with the provisions of sections six thousand and sixty-
nine, six thousand and seventy, and six thousand and seventy-one of
the Code of Virginia, so far as applicable.