Chap. 138.—An ACT to amend the Code of Virginia by adding to Chapter 199
thereof, eight new sections numbered 4987-f 1 to 4987-f 8, both inclusive, re-
lating to jurisdiction of trial justices, justices of the peace and mayors, and to
repeal Section 4987-f of the Code of Virginia, and all acts amendatory thereof,
relating to the same subjects. [H B 232]

Approved March 9, 1942

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the
Code of Virginia be amended by adding to chapter one hundred and
ninety-nine thereof, eight new sections numbered forty-nine hundred
and eighty-seven-f one to forty-nine hundred and eighty-seven-f eight,
both inclusive, as follows:

Section 4987-f 1. Jurisdiction——The jurisdiction of such tria
justice shall be as follows:

(a) The trial justice shall be a conservator of the peace within the
limits of the territory for which he is appointed. For the purpose of this
section the term “territory for which he is appointed” shall mean the
county or counties, including towns therein, and any city or cities for
which he is appointed trial justice.

(b) The trial justice shall have exclusive original jurisdiction 0:
all offenses against the ordinances, laws and by-laws of the respective
counties, cities and towns for which he is appointed and of all misde
meanors, except offenses of which jurisdiction is specifically vested in the
State Corporation Commission, arising under laws of the Commonwealth
There shall be an appeal of right to the circuit court of the county or th
corporation court of the city as provided for by the general laws with
reference to appeals from justices of the peace. There shall also be an
appeal of right to the circuit court of the county or corporation court of
the city from any order or judgment of a trial justice forfeiting any
recognizance or revoking any suspension of sentence formerly entered
by such trial justice. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection,
the circuit court of any county or the corporation court of any city shall
have jurisdiction to try any person for any misdemeanor for which such
person shall be indicted, or may certify such indictment to the trial Justice
for trial in which latter case, the indictment shall be in lieu of any war-
rant, petition, or other pleading constituting the charge which might
otherwise have been required by law. The trial justice shall also have
power to conduct preliminary examinations of persons charged with
crime in the manner prescribed for justices of the peace by chapter one
hundred and ninety-two of the Code. Trial justice shall have the power
to accept fines and costs within ten days if any defendant decides to with-
draw an appeal which has been noted.

(c) The trial justice shall have, within the limits of the territory
for which he is appointed, exclusive original jurisdiction of any claim to
specific personal property or to any debt, fine, or other money, or to
damages for breach of contract or for any injury done to property, real
and personal, or for any injury to the person, which would be recoverable
by action at law or suit in equity, when the amount of such claim does
not exceed the sum of two hundred dollars, and concurrent jurisdiction
with the circuit court of the county or the city court or courts of general
jurisdiction, as the case may be, of any such claim when the amount
thereof exceeds two hundred dollars but does not exceed one thousand
dollars; but when the amount of the claim exceeds the sum of two hun-
dred dollars the trial justice shall, at any time prior to the return date of
the process, but not thereafter, upon the application of the defendant and
the filing by him of an affidavit of himself, his agent or attorney that he
has a substantial defense to the plaintiff’s claim, and upon the payment by
him of the costs accrued to the time of removal, remove the case and all
the papers thereof, to the circuit court of the county or to the court of
general jurisdiction of the city, wherein the action was brought. The
plaintiff shall, within thirty days from the date of such removal, pay to the
clerk of the court to which the case has been removed the amount of the
writ tax as fixed by law, and four dollars on account of costs in said
court, and in the event of his failure so to do, the case shall stand dis-
missed, and the plaintiff shall not be permitted to institute another action
thereon until he shall have paid the accrued costs and in addition the
same penalty as provided in non-suits in courts of record.

On the trial of the case upon removal, the proceedings shall conform
to the proceedings under section six thousand and forty-six of the Code
of Virginia as now or hereafter amended. For the purpose of this section
the term “amount of claim” shall include any attorney’s fee contracted
for in any instrument sued on, but shall exclude interest and costs in all
cases. The trial justice shall also have jurisdiction of actions af unlawfid
cH. 138] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 185

detainer or entry in cases provided by section fifty-four hundred and
forty-five.

None of the foregoing provisions of this section shall affect the
right of any person to obtain judgment by confession in any court of
record having jurisdiction thereof, or in the clerk’s office of any such
court, where such right exists under some other statute or act, on any
claims for money, property or damages, regardless of the amount of such
claim for money or damages, or the value of such property.

Section 4987-f 2. Any civil action, within the jurisdiction conferred
upon the trial justice, may be brought in any county or city wherein the
cause of action, or any part thereof, arose, although neither the defend-
ant nor any one of the defendants reside therein, by warrant or notice
of motion returnable before the trial justice thereof; any such warrant
or notice of motion may be directed to a constable, sheriff or sergeant of
any county or city wherein the defendant resides or may be found; but
no such warrant or notice of motion shall be served or executed in any
other county or city than that wherein the action is brought, unless it be
(a) an action against a corporation, (b) an action upon a bond taken by
an officer under authority of some statute, (c) an action to recover
damages for a wrong, or (d) an action against two or more defendants
on one of whom such warrant or notice of motion has been executed in
the county or city in which the action is brought or (e) unless it be other-
wise specifically provided.

Where any such action is brought by notice of motion, such notice
shall be in writing, shall be signed by the plaintiff or his attorney, shall
contain a brief informal statement of the plaintiff’s claim, shall be served
at least five days before the return day thereof, in the same manner as
civil warrants are served, shall be returned to, and docketed by, the trial
justice before whom it is to be tried, provided that unless said notice is
returned to the trial justice at least one day before the return day thereof,
the trial thereon shall be continued until the next regular trial day of said
trial justice at the same place at which the original notice is returnable,
and shall be tried by said trial justice in the same manner as civil warrants
are tried by him.

Section 4987-f 3. The trial justice shall also have power to issue
and jurisdiction to try and decide attachments where the amount of the
plaintiff's claim does not exceed one thousand dollars, and the proceedings
on any such attachment shall conform to the provisions of chapter two
hundred and sixty-nine of the Code of Virginia as now or hereafter
amended, except that when an attachment other than under section sixty-
four hundred and sixteen is returned executed and the defendant has not
been served with a copy thereof, the trial justice, upon affidavit in con-
formity with sections six thousand and sixty-nine and six thousand and
seventy of this Code, shall forthwith cause to be posted at the front door
of the court house of the county a copy of the said attachment and shall
file a certificate of the fact with the papers in the case, and, in addition
to the said posting, an order of publication shall be awarded and published
in accordance with the provisions of sections six thousand and sixty-nine
and six thousand and seventy of the Code of Virginia; provided, how-
ever, that if the amount in controversy does not exceed the sum of fifty
dollars, posting of said order of publication at the front door of the court
house for ten days shall be deemed sufficient posting thereof, and publica-
tion thereof in a newspaper shall be dispensed with.

After said copy of the attachment has been so posted, and said order
of publication so published and/or posted, the trial justice may proceed
to try and decide the said attachment; and provided further, that where
any such attachment is levied on real estate, the trial justice shall take no
further cognizance of the case, but shall,forthwith remove the same to
the circuit court of his county, or the corporation court of his city, as the
case may be, to be further proceeded with in such court as if said attach-
ment had originated therein. ro

Section 4987-f 4. The trial justice shall have power to issue the
summons provided for by section sixty-five hundred and three, when the
fleri facias upon any final judgment heretofore or hereafter rendered
was issued by him. In such case such trial justice shall have all of the
powers and authority, respecting interrogatories, conferred by chapter
two hundred and seventy-two of this Code upon any court or judge
mentioned therein. The commissioner before whom any person is re-
quired to appear by such summons, issued by any such trial justice, shall
have the same powers and authority as if such summons had been issued
by the clerk under section sixty-five hundred and three. All interroga-
tories, answers, reports and other proceedings under such summons, and
also all money, evidence of debt and other security in the hands of an
officer, which are directed by any section of said chapter two hundred and
seventy-two, to be returned or delivered to such court or judge, or to the
clerk’s office of such court, shall when the said summons was issued by
such trial justice, be returned or delivered in like manner to said trial
justice. From any order made in such proceedings by a trial justice which
involves the disposition of any money or property exceeding the sum of
fifty dollars in value, exclusive of interest, there shall be an appeal in the
same manner and upon the same conditions as in the case of appeals
allowed from judgments rendered by the trial justice in civil cases.

Except as herein otherwise specifically provided, all statutes hereto-
fore enacted, except section forty-eight hundred and sixteen of the Code,
conterring any power, authority, or jurisdiction upon justices of the
peace in any civil action or proceeding, shall apply in like manner to trial
justices appointed hereunder. )

The trial justice shall, within his general jurisdiction within the
territory for which he is appointed, have power to issue warrants, sum-
mons and subpoenas, including subpoenas duces tecum, in civil and
criminal cases, to be returned before him, and shall also have power to
issue and conduct proceedings in fugitive warrants in accordance with
the provisions of sections five thousand and sixty-two and five thousand
and sixty-three of the Code.

Section 4987-f 5. No justice of the peace or mayor shall, within
any county or in any incorporated town located therein, or in any city,
for which a trial justice is appointed, exercise any civil or criminal juris-
diction herein conferred on such trial justice. Justices of the peace within
cH. 138] ! ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 187

their respective counties and mayors or other trial officers, within their
respective territorial jurisdictions shall, however, have the same power
to issue attachments, warrants and subpoenas within the jurisdiction of
the trial justice as is conferred upon the trial justice, and they shall also
have power to grant bail in any case in which they are now authorized by
general law to grant bail and to receive their fees therefor, but said
attachments, warrants and subpoenas shall be returnable before the trial
justice for action thereon. Any officer making an arrest for a misde-
meanor within any county or city for which a trial justice has been
appointed, shall, upon the request of the person so arrested, take him
with reasonable promptness before the nearest or any other available
justice of the peace, or such other officer authorized to grant bail, for
the purpose of being admitted to bail for his appearance before the said
trial justice.

The fee of a justice of the peace for issuing a subpoena for a witness
or witnesses in a case pending before a trial justice, shall be twenty-five
cents for each such subpoena and there shall be no additional fee where
there are more than one witness on one side of the case.

Section 4987-f 6. Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding
section, or any provision of any other statute or act to the contrary, any
city or any incorporated town within the jurisdiction of any trial justice
appointed as now or hereafter provided by law, may, by a resolution
adopted by a majority of the members of the council thereof, confer upon
and invest in the mayor or other trial officer of such city or town, the
right and authority to issue warrants, summon witnesses and try cases
involving violations of city or town ordinances, or the collection of city
or town taxes or assessments, or any other debts due and owing to such
city or town. The fees in connection with any such case shall be the same
as the fees provided by law for trial justices, and such fees, and all fines
imposed by such mayor or other trial officer, shall be collected by him
and paid into the treasury of his city or town, unless such city or town, by
ordinance, directs some other disposition thereof.

Section 4987-f 7. Except as herein otherwise specifically provided,
all the provisions of law now in force or which may hereafter be enacted
governing granting of bail, procedure and appeals in criminal cases,
relating to police justices in cities shall apply in like manner to trial jus-
tices appointed hereunder, and all provisions of law now in force or
which may hereafter be enacted governing procedure, removal and
appeals in civil cases relating to civil and police justices and civil justices
in cities, shall apply in like manner to trial justices appointed hereunder ;
except that in each county removals and appeals shall be to the circuit
court of the county; provided, however, that where a judgment for
money, rendered by a trial justice, is for a sum exceeding twenty dollars,
exclusive of interest and costs, he may stay execution thereon for sixty
days from its date, on such security being given for its payment as he
may deem sufficient, within ten days from the date of said judgment ; and
provided further, that in all civil cases wherein judgment is rendered by
a trial justice, where the matter in controversy is of greater value than
twenty dollars, exclusive of interest and costs, or where the case involves
the constitutionality or validity of a statute of this State, or of an ordi-
nance or by-law of a municipal corporation, there shall be an appeal of
right to the circuit court of the county, or the corporation court of the
city, wherein said judgment was rendered, and all such appeals shall be
tried and judgment rendered thereon, in accordance with the provisions
of section sixty hundred and thirty-eight, but no such appeal shall be
granted unless and until the party applying for the same shall give bond,
with sufficient surety, to be approved by the trial justice, to abide the
judgment of the court upon the trial of said appeal, if such appeal be
perfected except where such appeal is proper to protect the estate of a
decedent, an infant, a convict, or an insane person, or the interest of a
county, city or town no bond shall be required. No surety in any such
appeal bond shall be released by the appellants being adjudicated a bank-
rupt at any time subsequent to the judgment rendered by the said trial
justice, but such surety shall be entitled to make any defense on the trial
of the appeal that the appellant could have made, except the defense of
bankruptcy; provided, however, that in lieu of giving bond as herein-
above provided, any such appellant may deposit with the trial justice,
who shall issue his official receipt therefor, such sums of money as the
trial justice may estimate to be sufficient to discharge such judgment as
may be rendered by the appellate court on the trial of the appeal, in
which event, the trial justice shall pay the money so deposited with him
into the court to which such appeal is taken, by paying the same to the
clerk of the said court, who shall issue his official receipt therefor.

The clerk of such appellate court shall, upon receipt of the papers in
any such appealed case, and upon the payment of the writ tax, forthwith
docket such case in its regular order; but if said writ tax be not so paid
within thirty days from the date of the judgment, the said appeal shall
thereupon stand dismissed and said judgment shall become final, and the
papers in the case shall be returned by the clerk of the appellate court
to the said trial justice, for proceedings thereon by him in accordance
with the provisions of section sixty hundred and twenty-eight.

Section 4987-f 8. The said trial justice shall have the same powers
in matters of contempt as are conferred on courts and judges by the
general law, but in no case shall the fine exceed twenty-five dollars and
imprisonment exceed ten days for the same contempt. From any such
fine or sentence an appeal shall be allowed as appeals are allowed from
such trial justice in civil cases, and the proceedings in such appeal shall
conform in all other respects to the provisions of section forty-five
hundred and twenty-three.

The trial justice shall have authority to take affidavits and admin-
ister oaths and affirmations in all matters and proceedings, and shall have
power to issue all appropriate orders or writs, including the power to
appoint guardians ad litem in all proper cases in aid of the jurisdiction
conferred upon him, but he shall have no authority to take depositions
or to take acknowledgements to deeds or other writings for purposes of
recordation.

The trial justice shall also have and exercise, concurrently with
justices of the peace, the jurisdiction now or hereafter conferred by
general law upon justices of the peace in all matters in connection with
the adjudication and commitment of insane, epileptic, feeble-minded, and
inebriate persons, and the institution and conduct of proceedings there-
for.

2. Be it further enacted, That section forty-nine hundred and
eighty-seven-f, of the Code of Virginia, and all acts amendatory thereof,
are hereby repealed.