Chap. 435.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 6235 of the Code of
Virginia, in relation to how testimony may be perpetuated, and to prescribe
- the parties to whom such testimony may be available. [H B 523]

Approved April 1, 1938

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

Section 6235. A person desirous of perpetuating the testimony of
witnesses as to a matter in respect to which there is no suit or action,
may file with a commissioner in chancery of a court wherein, if there
were a bill to perpetuate the testimony, such bill might be filed, a pe-
tition addressed to such commissioner stating such matter, and what
persons may be affected by the testimony. Whereupon, the commis-
sioner shall appoint for proceeding on the petition, a time and place,
whereof reasonable notice shall be given to the persons who may be so
affected. If any of them be an infant, or an insane person, the com-
missioner shall appoint a guardian ad litem to attend on his behalf.
If any of them be non-residents of Virginia, or be unknown to the
petitioner, notice shall be given to such persons by publication in ac-
cordance with section six thousand and forty-three of the Code of
Virginia. At such time and place, the commissioner shall take in writ-
ing the evidence of any witnesses adduced by the petitioner, or by any
other person in interest, with respect to the matter set forth in such
petition. He may adjourn from time to time, and shall return said
petition with a report of his proceedings thereon, and the testimony
‘aken by him, to the clerk’s office of the court by which he was ap-
pointed. Such court, or the judge thereof in vacation, on motion of the
petitioner or any other party in interest, shall, if it appears that proper
ind sufficient grounds therefor exist, enter a decree or order direct-
ng that the testimony so taken be perpetuated and preserved. The
‘ost of any such proceedings shall be paid by the petitioner. Such
estimony shall be available to, and may be read on behalf of, any party
O any suit or action thereafter instituted concerning the subject mat-
er of such petition, and as to the rights or interests of all parties to
whom such notice was given, and their assigns, or successors in title,
such testimony shall have the same effect as if it had been taken on a
pill to perpetuate the testimony.

If the testimony to be so taken shall be in relation to the monuments
or lines marking the boundaries of any tract or parcel of land, the
names and places of residence of all persons whose interests may be
iffected by the establishment and location of such monuments or lines,
if known to the petitioner, shall be set out in the petition, and such
interested persons shall be given notice as above provided for.

The clerk to whose office such petition, report and evidence is re-
‘urned shall carefully file and preserve the same, and if such testimony
relates to the monuments or lines marking the boundaries of any tract
or parcel of land or any part thereof, or shall relate to any right, title
or interest in real estate, shall record said petition, report and such de-
cree or order as the court may have entered therein, in the current
deed book in his office, and index the papers so recorded by him, in the
general index to the deed books in his office, in the names of all parties
shown by said report or testimony to be interested therein, with the
additional words “petition to perpetuate testimony,” and a reference to
the place where such testimony is filed in his office.