Chap. 363.—An ACT to Amend and Re-enact an Act Entitled ‘“‘an Act
to Amend and Re-enact Sections 24 and 25 of Chapter 184 of the Code
of Virginia, in Relation to the Collection of Fee Bills.

Approved March 26, 1872.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That an act enti-
tled an act to amend and re-enact sections twenty-fourth and
twenty-fifth of the Code of Virginia in relation to the collec-
tion of fee bills, approved ] March twenty-ninth, eighteen hun-
dred and seventy-one, be amended and re- enacted so as to read
as follows:

§ 24. Any officer mentioned in this chapter, or personal rep-
resentative of a deceased clerk, may deliver fee bills, duly
sisned, to any sheriff or collector of taxes other than the
county or city treasurer, who shall receive and endeavor to
collect the same. <A sheriff or collector may distrain therefor,
or for any bills due himself, such property of the person to
whom the fee bills are charged as might be levied on under a
writ of fieri facias against him, except as hereinafter men-
tioned; and the ninth, tenth and eleventh sections of the thir-
ty-sixth chapter shall apply to such fee bills in like manner as
to taxes. And whenever in any county there shall be no sheriff,
and in any township there shall be no collector, any constable
of such township shall be authorized and empowered, and it
shall be his duty when required, to collect by distress if neces-
sary, the fees of all officers mentioned in this chapter.

§ 25. Every sheriff, collector or constable, to whom such fee
bills are so delivered, shall, within six months next after such
delivery, account therefor with the officer or personal repre-
sentative entitled thereto, by returning such as he may not
have collected with an endorsement thereon that the person
charged with the fees has no estate in his county or corpora-
tion out of which the same could be made, and by ‘paying to
such officer or representative the amount of all not so returned,
deducting a commission for himself of seven per centum on
said amount. If he fail so to do, judgment may be obtained
on motion against said sheriff, collector or constable and his
sureties, and his and their personal representatives, or against
any deputy who may have signed the receipt for said fees or
his personal representative, for the amount with which such
sheriff or collector or deputy is chargeable, and damages
thereon not exceeding fifteen per centum per annum from the
expiration of said six months. Such judgments may be on
motion in the circuit, county or corporation court of the county
or corporation in which said sheriff or collector resides; and if
the fees be due to a clerk of the court of appeals, it may be in
any circuit, county or corporation court where such court of
appeals is held. On such motion, any receipt for fees men-
tioned in the notice, as signed by any person, shall be deemed
to be his signature, unless an affidavit be filed denying it.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.