Chap. 243.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 6470 of the Code of Virginia,
as amended, relating to liens on real estate of judgments and decrees. [S 19]

‘Approved March 16, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section sixty-four hundred seventy of the Code of Virginia,
as amended, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 6470. Every judgment for money rendered in this State,
by any State or federal court, other than by confession in vacation, shall
be a lien on all the real estate of or to which the defendant in the judgment
is or becomes possessed or entitled, at or after the date of the judgment,
or if it was rendered in court, at or after the commencement of the term
at which it was so rendered, if the cause was in such condition that a
judgment might have been rendered on the first day of the term, but if
from the nature of the case judgment could not have been rendered at the
commencement of the term, it shall be a lien only on or after the date on
which the judgment or decree is rendered and not from the commence-
ment of the term, but this section shall not prevent the lien of a judgment
or decree from relating back to the first day of the term merely because
the case is set for trial or hearing on a later day of the term, if the case
was matured and ready for hearing at the commencement of the term,
nor merely because an office judgment in a case matured and docketed at
the commencement of the term does not become final until a later day of
the term. A judgment by confession in vacation shall also be a lien upon
such real estate, but only from the time of day at which it is confessed.
If more than one judgment is confessed in vacation by the same de-
fendant, they shall have priority as among themselves in the order with
respect to the time when they are respectively confessed, unless other-
wise directed by the defendant, which time shall be the time that the first
was confessed, and the clerk shall enter such time on his margin of his
order book.

Judgments against the same person shall, as among themselves,
attach to his real estate, and be payable thereout in the order of the
priority of such judgments, respectively. Provided that no judgment
shall be a hen on real estate as against a purchaser for valuable con-
sideration without notice until and except from the time that it is duly
docketed in the proper clerk’s office of the county or city wherein the
real estate is located. Provided that in a decree for alimony payable in
future installments the court may in its discretion provide that such
payments shall not be a lien on the real estate of the person required to
make such payments, or may designate such real estate on which the
same shall be a lien; or subsequently on petition release such lien for ali-
mony, whether accrued or to accrue.

An extract from any judgment shall, upon motion, be granted to anv
person interested immediately upon its rendition, subject to the future ac-
tion of the court rendering the same. This section is qualified by sec-
tion sixty-five hundred fifty of this Code.