Chap. 255.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 417 of the Code of Virginia,
as amended by an act approved March 24, 1922, concerning unsigned grants,
when to be used in evidence, and for quieting grantee’s title. [H B 139]

Approved March 23, 1926.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
four hundred and seventeen of the Code of Virginia, as amended by
an act approved March twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twenty-
two, be further amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 417. Copies of unsigned grants, when admissible in evi-
dence; Commonwealth’s right relinquished when certain taxes paid;
correction on record, of grants signed but signature not recorded.—
Where the records in the land office disclose the fact that the land
warrants used as the foundation for a grant of any of the public lands
of this Commonwealth, subject to grant, were fully paid for and that
the right to such grant was finally and fully completed in the manner
prescribed by law and a grant therefor made out and spread upon the
record book in said office, in due form of law and regular in every
respect only that the name of the then governor of Virginia was not
recorded at the foot thereof on said record book, it shall be the duty
of the secretary of the Commonwealth, upon the request of any per-
son interested, to furnish a copy of such grant as it appears of record
in said office, together with a certificate to the effect that the land
warrants upon which said grant was founded, were fully paid for;
that the right to such grant had been finally and fully completed in
the manner prescribed by law, and that said grant was regular in
every respect except only that the signature of the governor did not
appear at the foot thereof on the record. Such copy and certificate
shall be received in evidence in any legal proceeding in which the title
to the land described in said grant, or any part thereof, is brought in
controversy, and shall be prima facie evidence of title to such land;
and when the land embraced in such grant, or any part thereof, shall
have been regularly on the proper land books and the taxes and levies
regularly assessed thereon and paid by the claimants thereof, claiming
under such grant, for a continuous period of ten years, any title which
may rest in the Commonwealth, to so much of said land as has been
so on the land books and upon which the taxes and levies shall have
been so paid, shall be relinquished to the person so claiming the same,
and no location of any land office warrant thereon shall be valid;and
any such claimant of such land, on which the taxes and levies shall
have been so paid, may file a petition in the circuit court of the county
in which such land lies, after ten days’ notice in writing to the attorney
for the Commonwealth for said county, who shall appear and defend
the same on behalf of the Commonwealth and the county; and upon
satisfactory proof of the fact that such land has so been on the land
books of said county and all the taxes and levies regularly paid there-
on for the period of time hereinbefore specified, and the production
before said court of the copy of such grant and the certificate of the
secretary of the Commonwealth, hereinbefore provided for, the court
shall make an order which shall recite and set forth all of such facts so
proved and shown, which order, when so made and entered of record
on the proper order book of said court, shall operate to effectually re-
linquish to the person so claiming such land through and under such
grant, whatever right and title may rest in the Commonwealth,
thereto; and a copy of such order shall be conclusive evidence of the
better right of the claimant under such grant, in an caveat proceeding,
or any other controversy between such claimant and any other person
claiming under a location of such land or any part thereof, made after
the date of such order.

But nothing contained in this act shall in any manner affect any
right adverse to any person claiming under such grant, which vested
prior to the passage of this act, nor divest the right or title, if any, of
any junior grantee of any part of the land embraced within the ex-
terior bounds of such grant, claiming under a junior grant which was
regularly issued prior to the passage of this act, or any one holding
or claiming through or under such junior grantee, but in any contro-
versy between such adverse claimants or junior grantees, or persons
claiming or holding through or under them, and any person holding
or claiming through or under such grant as is first herein mentioned,
the contesting parties shall be left to the strength of their respective
rights and titles according to the nature of the case, independent of
this act, and just as if it had not been enacted.

If it shall appear from the original of any such grant as is first
hereinbefore referred to, that such original was actually signed by the
governor, the secretary of the Commonwealth shall, upon the pre-
sentation to him in his office, of such original grant so signed, correct
the record thereof so as to conform to such original grant, and afhx
thereto the date of such correction and a certificate of the fact that
such original, duly signed by the governor, had been presented to him.