Chap. 317.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 1887-h of the Code of Virginia
relating to Division of Mines, and to duties of the mine inspector as inspecto:
of weights and measures for certain purposes. [S 193

Approved March 29, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section eighteen hundred eighty-seven-h of the Code of Vir
ginia be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 1887-h. State mine inspector constituted inspector o
weights and measures for certain purposes—(a) The State mine in-
spector shall be the inspector of weights and measures for the purpose o!
inspecting, testing and ascertaining whether the scales or measures, whict
are kept at coal mines for the purpose of weighing or measuring coal pro-
duced therefrom, are correct, and for such purpose shall have the au-
thority vested in and be charged with the duties imposed upon inspector:
of weights and measures by general law.

(b) Every operator shall employ a weighman, who shall correctly
weigh all coal that is to be paid for by weight, and the miners or coal
loaders working in any mine, shall have the right to employ a checkweigh-
man, who shall be a worker employed at the same mine, provided a ma-
jority of the miners or loaders voting after at least three days’ notice of
the time and place of election shall have elected so to do, by secret ballot.
The checkweighman, when so employed, shall have the right to inspect
and check the weighing of coal mined at such mine. It shall be the duty
of the weighman and checkweighman at reasonable intervals and without
inconvenience to the operation of the mine, to ascertain the correct tare
weight of all mine cars by weighing while empty and in usual working
condition.
(c) When the checkweighman is employed by the miners working
at any mine the miners shall mutually agree as to the basic rate of pay per
hour, per day, or per ton, of checkweighman, and the method of collec-
tion and payment. Should the majority of the miners voting at any mine
fail to employ a checkweighman, then the person employed by the opera-
tor, corporation, company or person as weighman, shall alone perform
that duty. Before the weighman or checkweighman enter upon the dis-
charge of the duties of their employment, they shall take and subscribe an
oath or affirmation to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors during
the hours of work, to honestly and impartially do and perform the duties
of their employment, and to do equal and exact justice between employers
and employees concerned in the matter of their employment to the best
of their judgment, skill, and ability.

(d) When the weighman is mutually selected by the consent of a
majority of the miners working in any mine and the operator or his agent,
it shall not be considered necessary to employ a checkweighman, but at
any time that either of the parties to the agreement becomes dissatisfied
with the weighman, then by joint action they may dismiss him on ten
days’ notice, or the miners may employ a checkweighman.

a)

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Chap. 318—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 2503, as amended, of the
ode of Virginia, relating to proteedings to collect certain taxes and levies

on certain real estate. . [H 342]

Approved March 29, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section twenty-five hundred three, as amended, of the Code
of Virginia be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 2503. Court proceedings to collect taxes and levies by sale
of real estate purchased in name of Commonwealth or any city or town
and unredeemed after three years from the date ot such purchase.—When
real estate heretofore or hereafter purchased in the name of the Common-
wealth or any city or town is not redeemed bv the previous owner, his
heirs or assigns, or some person having the right to charge it with a debt,
within three years from the date of the purchase, it may be sold under the
provisions of this section. The remedy given by this section is in addition
to other remedies provided by law.

Proceedings under this section shall be instituted and conducted in
the name of the Commonwealth, or in the name of the county, city or
town in which the real estate lies, by such attorney as the governing body
of the county, city or town employs for the purpose, either on a salary or
a commission or other basis. The governing body may require the at-
torney to give bond in an amount to be fixed by it, with surety to be ap-
proved by it, conditioned upon the lawful accounting for all funds which
may come into his hands as such attorney under this section, and the
premium on the bond may be ordered to be paid out of the local treasurv.
The bond shall be delivered to the clerk of the circuit court of the county
or the clerk of the city court in whose office deeds are admitted to record,
and shall be recorded by the clerk in his special commissioner’s bond
book. The courts having jurisdiction under this section are the circuit
courts of counties and the circuit and other city courts of record of cities
having equity jurisdiction in which the real estate is situated.

Proceedings under this section shall be by bill in equity to subject the
real estate to the existing tax liens by sale, but it shall not be necessary
to allege or prove any equitable grounds of jurisdiction ; and for the pur-
poses of this section, the fact that the real estate was purchased in the
name of the Commonwealth at a treasurer’s tax sale shall be regarded
merely as security for the taxes and levies in addition to the security al-
ready existing by reason of the tax lien or liens. In such proceedings two
or more parcels of real estate may be covered by one bill provided they
were assessed against or are owned by the same persons. No writ tax
shall be charged.

All necessary parties shall be made parties defendant, but it shall not
be held that a husband or wife is a necessary party merely because of his
or her rights of curtesy initiate or contingent or dower inchoate or con-
tingent, nor shall it be held that the beneficiary or beneficiaries under any
deed of trust or mortgage are necessary parties provided the trustee or
trustees under the deed of trust, or mortgagee or mortgagees under the
mortgage, are made parties, and in any such case the title conveyed to
the purchaser at the judicial sale shall be held to bar such curtesy or
dower and to be free of all claims of beneficiaries under any such deed of
trust or mortgage. No trustee or mortgagee in any deed of trust or mort-
gage which has been recorded, or the lien thereof, renewed, more than
twenty years prior to the institution of the proceedings shall be a neces-
Sary party.

The order of reference shall be to some commissioner in chancery or
special master other than the attorney employed to subject the real estate
to the lien of any taxes. The attorney employed by the governing body
of the county, city or town to bring suit to subject the real estate to the
lien of any taxes shall be appointed special commissioner of sale if the pro-
ceedings result in the need of a special commissioner, and he shall also be
charged with the duty of executing such deed or deeds as the court orders.
If the attorney has already given the bond hereinabove mentioned, no
additional bond shall be required of him as special commissioner unless
the court regards the bond already given as insufficient in amount. No
fee or commission shall be allowed or paid to any attorney for acting
under the order of reference or as special commissioner, except as here-
inafter provided, and the compensation contracted to be paid any such
attorney by the governing body, whether the employment was on a salary
or a commission or other basis, shall be in full for all services rendered by
him; provided that the court may allow in the proceedings such fees and
commissions, including fees for preparing and executing deeds, as would
be allowed if the suit were an ordinary lien creditors’ suit, payable out
of the proceeds of sale, and such fees and commissions shall, when col-
lected, be paid into the county, city or town treasury, as the case may be,
provided that the fees allowed for the services of a commissioner in
chancery or a special master shall be paid to and retained by him.

The county, city or town may be a purchaser at any sale held under
this section or under any other provision of law for the enforcement of
tax liens, and after confirmation the county, city or town may use the
real estate so purchased for any lawful public purpose, or it may merely
hold the same for sale on satisfactory terms, in which latter case it may
sell and convey it in the same manner as other county, city or town prop-
erty, which may be lawfully sold is sold and conveyed.

Every attorney employed under this section shall render an account
monthly to the governing body employing him, or oftener if called upon
by the governing body. He shall, at least monthly, make such reports
in writing under his hand to the clerk of the court having charge of the
delinquent land books as will enable the clerk to make appropriate
entries in such books. Any attorney’s fee taxed in the costs for the at-
torney employed by the governing body shall, when collected, be paid into
the county, city or town treasury, as the case may be.

The attorney shall periodically report to the governing body employ-
ing him every parcel of real estate which he ascertains to be improperly
placed on the delinquent land books, and the governing body, upon satis-
fying itself of the correctness of the report, or correcting it to conform to
the facts, shall certify the information to the proper clerk and the clerk,
on the order of the court of which he is clerk, shall mark his delinquent
land book accordingly.

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ay Lt Lames