Chap. 177.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 5189 of the Code of Virginia,
_ as heretofore amended, relating to docketing conditional sales contracts, and
certain other contracts. [H B 266]

Approved March 12, 1940

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

Section 5189. Reservation of title to, and liens on goods and
chattels sold, to be void as to creditors, and purchasers for value, un-
less in writing and docketed.—Every sale, or contract for the sale of
goods and chattels, wherein the title thereto, or a lien thereon, is
reserved, until the same be paid for, in whole or in part, or the transfer
of title is made to depend on any condition, where possession is de-
livered to the vendee, shall, in respect to such reservation and condition
be void as to creditors of the vendee who acquire a lien upon the goods
and as to purchasers from the vendee, for value, without notice, from
such vendee unless such sale or contract be evidenced by writing,
signed by the vendor and the vendee, setting forth the date thereof,
the amount due, when and how payable, a brief description of the
goods and chattels, and the terms of the reservation or condition; and
unless said writing is filed for docketing with the clerk of the county or
corporation, where deeds are admitted to record, as provided by law,
in which said goods and chattels may be; provided, that if such filing
for docketing be done within five days from the delivery of the goods
and chattels to the vendee, it shall be as valid as to creditors and
purchasers as if such filing for docketing had been done on the day of
such delivery of the goods and chattels; and it shall be the duty of
such clerk to endorse on such contract the words, ‘‘filed and docketed”’
together with the day and hour of such filing with the signature of the
clerk affixed thereto; or, if such goods and chattels consist of loco-
motives, cars, or other rolling stock, equipments, or personal property
of any description, to be used in or about the operation of any railroad,
operating as a public service corporation, until and except from the
time the said writing is duly docketed in the clerk’s office of the county
or the corporation, where deeds are admitted to record, as provided
by law, wherein the principal office, in this State, of the company
operating such railroad is located, and a copy of said writing be filed
in the office of the State Corporation Commission, and each locomotive,
car, or other piece of rolling stock, be plainly and permanently marked
with the name of the vendor, on both sides thereof, followed by the
word ‘‘owner’’.

It shall be the duty of the clerk to docket the writings mentioned
herein by setting out the above mentioned particulars of the contract
in a well bound book, to be called the ‘‘conditional sales book’’, and to
index the same, thereon, alphabetically, in the name of both the vendor
and the vendee, for which service he may charge a fee of twenty-five
cents; except in case of public service corporations, he may charge a
fee not exceeding fifty cents; but no tax shall be charged thereon. The
clerk shall, after having docketed such contract, return the same to
the party filing the same for docketing.

All recordation and docketings made, as required by law, as it
existed before the Code of Virginia of nineteen hundred and nineteen
became effective between the thirteenth day of January, nineteen
hundred and twenty and the nineteenth day of March, nineteen and
twenty, both inclusive, are hereby validated, except where the validity
of such recording or docketing has been or could be attacked or ques-
tioned in litigation now pending; and provided, further, that all
recordations and docketings made in accordance with an act approved
March nineteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty, entitled an act to
amend and re-enact section fifty-one hundred and eighty-nine of the
Code of Virginia, as amended by an act approved September fifth,
nineteen hundred and nineteen, are hereby validated; and provided,
further, that all recordations and docketings heretofore made of such
writings without filing a memorandum thereof, are hereby validated;
but nothing in this provision shall be construed as intended to affect
vested rights.