Chap. 352.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 7, as amended, of Chapter V
of Chapter 262 of the Acts of Assembly of 1889-90, approved February 17
1890, which incorporated and provided a charter for the City of Danville, the
section relating to civil and police justices, salary of clerk and deputy and
related matters. [H B 429]

Approved March 27, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section seven, as amended, of chapter five of chapter two
hundred sixty-two of the Acts of Assembly of eighteen hundred eighty-
nine-ninety, approved February seventeen, eighteen hundred ninety, be
amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 7. The office of civil justice of the City of Danville is here-
by created. Such civil justice shall be appointed by the corporation court
of Danville, or by the judge thereof in vacation, and shall hold office for
a term of four years, or until his successor be appointed and qualified,
the first such term to commence on July first, nineteen hundred and
thirty-eight. Any vacancy in the office of civil justice shall be filled for
the unexpired term by the said corporation court or by the judge thereof
in vacation.

Such civil justice shall be a resident of the City of Danville for at
least six months preceding the commencement of his term of office; and
during such term he shall reside within the City of Danville. Such civil
justice shall not appear as counsel in any case pending in his court or on
appeal or removal therefrom, nor shall he be permitted or authorized to
accept or receive any claim or evidence of debt for collection where the
enforcement of such claim or evidence of debt is within the exclusive
original jurisdiction of his court. Such civil justice may be removed from
office in such manner and for such causes as is now or may hereafter be
provided for the removal of other State, county, city, town or other of-
ficers.

The said corporation court, or the judge thereof in vacation shall
appoint a substitute civil justice, having the same qualifications herein
prescribed for the civil justice, and may at any time revoke such appoint-
ment, and may make a new appointment in the event of such revocation,
or of the death, absence or disability of such substitute civil justice. In
the event of the inability of the civil justice to perform the duties of his
office, by reason of sickness, absence, vacation, interest in the proceed-
ings or parties before his court, or otherwise, such substitute civil justice
shall perform the duties of such office during such inability, and shall
receive for his service a per diem compensation equivalent to one-twen-
ty-fifth of the monthly installment of the salary of the civil justice. For
each day in excess of fifteen within a single year that such substitute
civil justice 1s required to act, the amount of his compensation as above
provided shall be deducted from the salary of the civil justice. While
acting as such civil justice, the substitute civil justice shall perform the
same duties, have the same jurisdiction, exercise the same powers and
authority, and be subject to the same obligations as provided herein in
respect to the civil justice. The civil justice or the substitute civil justice
while acting as civil justice, may perform all acts, with reference to the
proceedings, acts and judgments of the other, in the same manner and
with the same force and effect, as if such proceedings, acts and judgments
were his own.

Before entering upon the performance of their duties, the civil
justice and the substitute civil justice, and clerk, shall take the oath re-
quired by law of other judicial officers, and shall enter into bond before

e corporation court of Danville, in the penalty of not less than five
hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars in the discretion
of the court, with surety to be approved by said court, and conditioned
for the faithful performance of their duties.

The civil justice shall receive such salary as may be fixed by the
council. Within the limits set, the council may at any time increase
such salary, but shall not make any diminution effective for any portion
of the term within which such diminution is resolved upon, unless the
then incumbent civil justice consent to such diminution. The salary
of the civil justice shall be paid in monthly installments, out of the treas-
ury of the City of Danville. The civil justice shall receive for his serv-
ices no compensation other than the salary herein provided.

The civil justice shall be a conservator of the peace within the limits
of the City of Danville, and shall exercise in civil matters only the same
powers and jurisdiction, either exclusively or concurrently with the cir-
cuit court and corporation court of Danville (and saving to parties the
same rights of removal or appeal from said justice to said courts), as the
Code of Virginia does now or hereafter may confer on trial justices for
the several counties. All general legislation now or hereafter applicable
to trial justices, except with regard to criminal jurisdiction, whether con-
ferring powers, imposing duties, excluding other individuals from per-
forming functions assigned to such justices, establishing fees or costs to
be taxed, or otherwise, shall in the absence of a contrary provision apply
equally to the civil justice of the City of Danville.

The civil justice shall appoint a clerk who shall be designated in
process issued by him as clerk of the civil justice court, and who shall
hold office at the pleasure of such civil justice, and shall receive such
salary as the council may fix, payable in monthly installments out of the
treasury of the city.

Such clerk shall be a conservator of the peace within the limits of
the City of Danville, and may within said limits issue warrants and proc-
esses and shall in all respects possess the same privileges, and be sub-
ject to the same duties, in civil matters only, as now are or hereafter may
be conferred or imposed upon clerks of the trial justice courts of the
various counties, by the provisions of the Code of Virginia.

In the event of disability of such clerk to perform the duties of his
office, by reason of sickness, absence, vacation or otherwise, the civil

ustice may appoint a substitute clerk who, having qualified and given
bend as required of the clerk hereunder, shall perform all the duties of
the office during such disability, and shall receive for his services a per
diem compensation equivalent to one-twenty-fifth of a monthly install-
ment of the salary of the clerk, payable as said salary is herein provided
to be paid. For each day in excess of fifteen within a single year that
such substitute clerk is required to act, the amount of his compensation
as above provided shall be deducted from the salary of the clerk.

While acting as such, the clerk or substitute clerk may perform all
acts with reference to proceedings or duties of the other in the same man-
ner and with the same effect as if they were his own.

Such clerk or substitute clerk shall receive no compensation for his
services other than the salary above provided. They shall deliver all
fees collected by them to the civil justice for distribution in the same
manner as provided for other fees collected by the civil justice.

The council of the City of Danville shall provide a suitable court
room and quarters for said civil justice and clerk in the municipal build-
ing of the City of Danville and the hearing and trial of all matters cog-
nizable by said civil justice shall be in said court room and quarters. The
council shall provide such books, stationery and supplies as may be nec-
essary, and these shall be kept by the civil justice subject to the super-
vision of the corporation court of Danville.

The docket of the civil justice court and all papers thereof shall be
kept in the form and manner provided for those of trial justices in the
several counties; all records, except receipts, of the civil justice court
shall be typewritten and a typewritten index of every judgment or other
order shall be kept, which shall be indexed as well in the name of the
person against whom as in the name of the person in whose favor the
same is. The clerk or substitute clerk shall within a reasonable time from
the effective date of this act prepare such a typewritten index covering
every judgment or other order of the civil justice court since its creation
on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight.

All fees collected by the civil justice or his clerk shall be paid prompt-
ly into the treasury of the City of Danville.

The council may at any time consolidate the offices of civil justice
and police justice, and the incumbent of the single office thereby created
shall be known as the trial justice of the City of Danville; in which event
the term of office of said civil justice shall terminate immediately upon the
appointment and qualification of a trial justice as hereinafter provided
for; and the first term of such trial justice shall be for the unexpired
term of the civil justice. Subject to this provision, the term of office of
such trial justice shall be four years, in the same manner hereinbefore
provided in the case of the civil justice.

Such trial justice shall be appointed in the same manner and shall
possess the same qualifications as prescribed for the civil justice and shall
in addition thereto be an attorney-at-law licensed to practice law in Vir-
ginia. The powers, duties and jurisdiction of such trial justice, and the
conduct of his office in all respects, shall be as the Code of Virginia does
now or hereafter may provide in the case of trial justices of the several
counties, provided, that the territorial extent of his jurisdiction in crimi-
nal matters shall be the same as that of the corporation court of Danville.
Such trial justice shall not, during his term of office, engage in the prac-
tice of law in any form. The trial justice shall be provided with a court
room, quarters and supplies such as are herein required by the council of
the City of Danville in the case of a civil justice.

The corporation court of Danville, or the judge thereof in vacation,
shall appoint a substitute trial justice in the same manner, as set out
herein with respect to a substitute civil justice, but the qualifications for
said substitute trial justice shall be the same as herein provided for the
trial justice.

Such trial justice, substitute trial justice, clerk and deputy clerk,
if any, shall enter into a bond as provided in the case of the civil justice,
substitute civil justice, and clerk.

Such trial justice shall receive such salary as may be fixed by the
council. Unless otherwise specified, all provisions of the present section
relating to the civil justice, his substitute, his clerk, or the conduct of his
office in any way, shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to such trial justice and
his office.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in the case of trial
justice courts of the several counties, all fees collected by the trial justice,
or any officer of his court, except such fees as belong to officers, other
than the trial justice, his clerk, and the Commonwealth’s attorney, shall
be promptly paid over in full to the treasury of the City of Danville ex-
cept in such cases as the general law may provide for the payment of said
fees or any part thereof, into the State treasury.

The clerk of the police court of Danville at the time the office of trial
justice begins to function as provided herein, shall be the first clerk of
the trial justice court, and shall not be involuntarily removed from said
clerkship by the trial justice within a period of three years. Thereafter,
the trial justice shall have such power over his clerk as is herein pro-
vided in the case of the civil justice.

The clerk of the trial justice court shall receive such salary as the
council may fix; provided that if the corporation court of Danville or the
judge thereof in vacation shall at any time certify, by an order entered in
its common law order book, that it is reasonably necessary for the prompt
and proper dispatch of the business of the trial justice court to provide
the clerk thereof with one or more deputies, the trial justice shall appoint
such deputy or deputies in the same manner provided for the appoint-
ment of the clerk. Each such deputy shall receive such salary as the
council may provide.

The clerk of the civil justice court (or of the trial justice court,
when and if such shall be created as hereinbefore provided) and the
substitute clerk on days when he acts as such, shall have the same power
to admit to bail as the corporation court of Danville or the judge thereof
in vacation would have if application had been made to said court or judge
thereof in vacation in the first instance. Such clerk or substitute clerk
as above provided shall also have concurrent jurisdiction with the police
or trial justice of the City of Danville to issue warrants for all offenses
against the ordinances of the City of Danville, committed within the City
of Danville, and to issue criminal warrants for all offenses against the
laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, committed within said City of
Danville, or within one mile of the corporate limits thereof.