Chap. 159.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 6217 of the Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, relating to issuance of summons for witnesses and to
recognizances. [H B 109]

Approved March 8, 1940

1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That Sec-
tion sixty-two hundred and seventeen of the Code of Virginia, as
heretofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows:

Section 6217. A summons may be issued, directed as prescribed
in section six thousand and fifty-five, commanding the officer to sum-
mon any person to attend on the day and at the place that such
attendance is desired, to give evidence before a court, grand jury,
arbitrators, umpire, justice, coroner, surveyor, notary, or any com-
missioner appointed by a court. The summons may be issued, if the
attendance be desired at a court, by the clerk thereof; if before a
Commissioner in Chancery or other commissioner of a Court, by the
Clerk of the Court in which the matter is pending, or by such com-
missioner in chancery or other commissioner; if before a grand Jury,
by the attorney for the Commonwealth, or the clerk of the court, at
the instance of the attorney for the Commonwealth; and, in a pro-
ceeding pending before a court by the clerk of the court in which the
proceeding is pending; and in other cases, by the clerk of the circuit
court of the county or the clerk of the corporation court of the city in
which the attendance is desired, or, if it be desired before a justice,
by such or any other justice. It shall express on whose behalf, and in
what case or about what matter, the witness is to attend. This
section shall be deemed to authorize a summons to compel attendance
before commissioners or other persons appointed by authority of
another State, but only in case they be citizens of this State, and the
summons requires the attendance of a witness at a place not out of
his county or city; provided, also, that upon the continuance of any
case, either civil or criminal, in a court of record, the court shall,
upon the request of any party litigant, require such party’s witnesses
then present, to enter into recognizance in such penalty as the court
may deem proper, either with or without security, in the discretion of
the court, for their appearance to give evidence in said cause, on such
day as may then be fixed for the trial thereof at a subsequent term of
such court, such recognizance to be taken conditioned, and entered of
record in the same manner provided in section forty-nine hundred and
seventy-three, for taking recognizance.