Chap. 206.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 27 of an act entitled “An
act to provide a new charter for the city of Roanoke and to repeal the
existing charter of said city and the several acts amendatory thereof, and all
other acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act so far as they relate
to the city of Roanoke,” approved March 22, 1924, as heretofore amended,
said section relating to the civil and police justice. [S B 29]

Approved March 21, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion twenty-seven of an act entitled “an act to provide a new charter
for the city of Roanoke and to repeal the existing charter of said city
and the several acts amendatory thereof, and all other acts or parts of
acts inconsistent with this act so far as they relate to the city of Roa-
noke,” approved March twenty-second, nineteen hundred and twenty-
four, as heretofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows:

Section 27. The civil and police justice shall be elected at the time,
in the manner and for the term provided by section nine of this
charter.

(a) Such civil and police justice, before entering upon the per-
formance of his duties, shall take the oath prescribed by law.

(b) Such civil and police justice shall receive such salary as the
council shall fix by ordinance, and he shall receive no other compensa-
tion or emoluments whatsoever.

(c) Such civil and police justice shall be a conservator of the
peace within the corporate limits of the city of Roanoke and within
one mile beyond said limits, and within such limits shall have exclu-
sive original jurisdiction for the trial of all offenses against the
ordinances of the city: provided, that the city shall have the right
to appeal to the corporation court of said city from any decision
of the civil and police justice affecting the legality or validity of any
ordinance passed by the council of the city; and he shall have con-
current jurisdiction with the corporation court in all cases of the
violation of the revenue laws and the laws prohibiting the manufac-
ture, use, sale, offering for sale, transportation, keeping for sale and
giving away ardent spirits. In criminal cases, he shall possess all the
jurisdiction and exercise all the power and authority conferred by
law upon a trial justice, and except where it is otherwise specifically
provided by law, shall have exclusive original jurisdiction for the
trial of all misdemeanor cases occurring within the corporate limits
of the city and concurrent jurisdiction with the county authorities of
offenses committed within one mile of the corporate limits. In civil
cases, he shall possess all the jurisdiction and exercise all the power
and authority conferred by law upon a trial justice, except he shall
not have power to issue warrants in detinue, unlawful detainer, at-
tachments, distress warrants and warrants for small claims but the
right of removal and appeal shall remain as before. In any civil case
triable before such civil and police justice involving a claim to specific
personal property, or to any debt, fine or other money, or to damages
for breach of any contract, or for any injury done to property, real or
personal, in which the amount or thing in controversy exceeds the sum
or value of twenty dollars, but is less than three hundred dollars
(removals in cases involving more than three hundred dollars being
governed by the general law), such justice shall, upon the application
of the defendant and upon affidavit that he has a substantial defense
thereto, at any time before trial, remove the cause and all the papers
therein, to either the corporation court, or the court of law and
chancery of the city of Roanoke, and the clerk of the court to which
the same is removed shall forthwith docket the same, but the case
shall not be tried at any term except by consent of the parties thereto,
unless it shall have been so docketed ten days prior to the beginning
of such term. On the trial of the case, the proceedings shall conform
to proceedings under section sixty hundred and forty-six of the Code
of Virginia, as amended.

Appeals from said civil and police justice, in civil cases, both as
to procedure and as to the courts to which such appeals may be had,
shall be governed by section thirty-one hundred and six of the Code
of Virginia, as amended.

The said civil and police justice, in removals and appeals in civil
cases, shall divide the same as nearly as may be practicable, equally
between the corporation court and the court of law and chancery of
the city of Roanoke.

If any plaintiff shall not bring his case to trial within two years
from the time it is docketed in the court to which it is removed or
appealed, it shall be dismissed at the expiration of said two-year
period, unless, after reasonable notice to the plaintiff, good cause be
shown against such dismissal.

The city council, may, by ordinance, impose upon the civil and
police justice, such other duties as it may deem proper and expedient.

(d) He shall keep a regular account of all fees, fines, forfeitures,
and costs imposed or arising in the administration of his office, which
he shall report weekly to the auditor, and shall pay such fees as he
has collected to the treasurer. The chief of police, or such officer as
shall be designated for that purpose, shall collect all fines, forfeitures
and cost and report the same weekly, to the auditor and pay the same
weekly to the treasurer.

(e) He shall keep his office and court at such places as may be pre-
scribed by council, which shall be kept open for the transaction of
business every day in the year except Sundays and legal holidays, and
if from any cause he is unable to act, the issuing justice, or if an
assistant civil and police justice has been elected, said assistant civil
and police justice, shall discharge the duties of the civil and police
justice prescribed herein during such inability.

(f) Any vacancy occurring in the office of civil and police justice
arising from any cause shall be filled by council by election of a person
with the qualifications prescribed herein.