Chap. 99.—An ACT to Amend and Re-enact Section 50, of Chapter 171, of
the Code of 1860, as to Parties in Chancery.

Approved March 6, 1871.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That the fiftieth
section of chapter one hundred and seventy-one of the Code
of Virginia (edition of eighteen hundred and sixty), be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Ҥ 50. If a suit in equity be set for hearing as to any de-
fendant it shall be heard as to him, unless his interests be so
connected with those of other defendants in the suit that it
would be improper to decide upon their interests separately ;
and though there be such connection, a defendant, as to whom
the case has been set for hearing, may have an order upon the
plaintiff to use due dilligence to mature the cause for hearing
as to the other defendants, and unless it be so matured within
such time as the court may deem reasonable, shall be entitled
to a hearing or a dismission of it as to him. And in any case
where fall justice cannot be done, or the whole controversy
ended without the presence of new parties to the suit, the
court, by order or decree, may direct the clerk to issue the
proper process against such new parties, and upon the matur-
ing of the case as to them, proceed to make such orders or
decrees as would have been proper if the new parties had been
made parties at the commencement of the suit.”

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.