Chap. 262.—An ACT to continue the Commission on Code Recodification as
a permanent commission entitled the Virginia Code Commission; to provide
for the printing and publication of a general edition of the Code of Virginia
as adopted by the General Assembly at the Session of 1948; to provide for
the codification and incorporation into the Code of Virginia of the other
laws of a general nature, and of certain additional laws enacted by the
General Assembly at the Session of 1948 and subsequent sessions; to provide
that the Code of Virginia shall not be printed and distributed as are other
acts of the General Assembly; and to make an appropriation. {S 258]

Approved March 16, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia as follows:

1. Section 1. The Commission on Code Recodification
created by chapter four hundred, Acts of Assembly of nineteen
hundred forty-six, is continued as a permanent Commission and
shall hereafter be entitled the Virginia Code Commission. The
Commission shall be composed of the Attorney General of Virginia
and the Director of the Division of Statutory Research and Draft-
ing, as members ex officio, a judge of some city court of the city of
Richmond appointed by the Governor for a term of four years if
his term as judge be so long, a member of the Senate appointed by
the presiding officer of that body for a term coincident with his
term as a member of the Senate, and a member of the House of
Delegates appointed by the presiding officer thereof for a term
coinciding with his term as a member of the House of Delegates.
All such members of the Commission shall serve until the expira-
tion of their terms or until their successors shall qualify. Subse-
quent appointments shall be made for similar terms, and vacancies
shall be filled for the unexpired terms by the persons authorized
to make the original appointments. The members of the General
Assembly appointed on the Commission shall receive a per diem
of ten dollars a day for each day or portion of a day on which
they are engaged upon the business of the Commission. All mem-
bers shall receive their necessary expenses incurred in attendance
upon meetings or otherwise incurred in the performance of their
duties.

Section 2. Within thirty days of the adjournment sine die of
the nineteen hundred forty-eight Session of the General Assembly
the Commission shall meet, and shall forthwith proceed to codify
and incorporate in the Code of Virginia as adopted by the General
Assembly at the Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight all other
acts of a general nature adopted at that session, or acts which,
although not technically acts of a general nature, are acts which
in the judgment of the Commission should be incorporated in the
Code.

Section 3. In so codifying the acts of the nineteen hundred
forty-eight Session the Commission shall arrange the various acts
and assign to them appropriate places and section numbers in the
Code and may create new titles, chapters and articles. The Com-
mission may, when in its judgment it is appropriate divide single
acts and sections of acts into smaller sections for incorporation in
the Code, and may arrange, place and number such smaller sections.
Each codified section shall be given an appropriate catch line and
a correct historical reference, and shall be properly indexed. Cross
references shall be translated by use of the Code section numbers
and other Code designations assigned. The Commission may cor-
rect unmistakable printer’s errors and other unmistakable errors in
nineteen hundred forty-eight acts, and may make consequential
changes in the titles of officers and agencies, and other purely
consequential changes made necessary by the use in nineteen
hundred forty-eight acts of titles, terminology and references, or
other language, no longer appropriate after the Code or any part
thereof becomes effective.

Section 4. The repeal by the General Assembly at the Session
of nineteen hundred forty-eight and any statute as it existed prior
to nineteen hundred forty-eight, or any part thereof, shall operate
as a repeal of so much thereof as is contained in the Code as
adopted, and such repealed matter shall be omitted from the Code.
Section 5. The amendment by the General Assembly at the
Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight of any statute as it existed
prior to nineteen hundred forty-eight, or any part thereof, shall
operate as an amendment of so much thereof as is contained in the
Code as adopted, and such amendment shall be substituted therefor
in the Code; provided, however, that any such amendment which
amends any previously existing provision of law conferring any
power or imposing any duty upon, or mentioning any power or
duty as being vested in, any department, board, commission,
agency, or officer of the State government whose functions, powers
or duties are affected by any of the provisions of the Code which
became effective in advance of the effective date of the remainder
of the Code, shall be construed as being subject to such Code
provisions so becoming effective in advance.

Section 6. The amendment and reenactment by the General
Assembly at the Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight of any
statute as it existed prior to nineteen hundred forty-eight, or any
part thereof, shall operate, for the purposes of codification, as a
reenactment of such portion only as was affected by the amend-
ment, and only such actually amended portion shall be codified and
incorporated into the Code as a nineteen hundred forty-eight act.

Section 7. The Commission may omit from nineteen hundred
forty-eight acts incorporated into the Code provisions which in
the judgment of the Commission have no place in a permanent
Code, such as emergency clauses, clauses providing specific non-
recurring appropriations, and similar clauses.

Section 8. In order to accomplish the work of codifying the
acts of the Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight, and the acts
of subsequent Sessions as hereinafter provided, the Commission
is authorized to enter into a contract or contracts with any reputable
person or persons for such editorial work, printing, indexing, and
other work as may be necessary, and shall be furnished with the
necessary office space and may employ necessary secretarial and
other assistance and purchase needed equipment.

Section 9. The Commission shall also forthwith proceed to
prepare and cause to be printed and published a suitable and fully
indexed general edition of the Code of Virginia, as adopted at the
Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight, with all amendments made
before adoption, if any there be, incorporated therein, and with
the acts of the Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight codified and
incorporated therein. The Commission is authorized to enter into
a contract or contracts with any reputable person or persons for
such editorial work, printing, indexing, annotating and other work
as may be necessary, and shall be furnished with the necessary
office space, and may employ necessary secretarial and other assist-
ance and purchase needed equipment. The Commission may
arrange for the general edition to be printed and published by or
at the expense of the Commonwealth and sold and otherwise dis-
tributed by the Commonwealth, or the Commission may arrange
that the general edition be privately printed and published, under
the direction and supervision of the Commission and upon such
terms as the Commission may provide, and sold and distributed by
the publisher or publishers upon such terms, including terms as to
price, as the Commission may provide.

Section 10. The Commission shall have full discretion to
arrange for the publication of annotated or un-annotated copies of
the Code, or for both, to fix the number of volumes, to decide all
questions of form, make up and arrangement, including title pages,
prefaces, annotations, index, tables of contents and reference,
appendices, paper, type, binding and lettering. The Commission
may arrange that the general edition be made a permanent edition
and kept current by means of pocket parts or supplements and
replacement volumes.

The Commission shall give effect to the repeals, amendments
and reenactments mentioned in sections four, five and six of this
act. The Commission may correct unmistakable printer’s errors and
other unmistakable errors in the Code as adopted, and may make
consequential changes in the titles of officers and agencies, and
other purely consequential changes made necessary by the use in
the Code as adopted of titles, terminology and references, or other
language, no longer appropriate in view of acts of the nineteen
hundred forty-eight Session.

The Commission may renumber, rename and rearrange any
titles, chapters, articles and sections in the Code as adopted, and
make correcting changes in lists of chapter headings and of
article and section headings, or catch lines, and in tables, when,
in the judgment of the Commission, it is necessary so to do
because of any disturbance or interruption of orderly or consecutive
arrangement resulting from any amendment to the Code before
its adoption, or resulting from the passage of any act of the nine-
teen hundred forty-eight session.

Section 11. Except for certain portions thereof as to which it
may be otherwise provided by law, the Code as adopted at the
Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight shall not be printed in
the volume of Acts of Assembly for nineteen hundred forty-eight,
or printed and distributed as are other Acts of Assembly, or other-
wise printed or distributed except in accordance with the provisions
of this act. The Commission, however, may arrange for the distri-
bution by the Commonwealth, or acquisition and distribution by
the Commonwealth, of such number of copies of the general
edition printed and published under this act as is provided for
in the distribution of the volumes of Acts of Assembly, or as the
Commission may see fit.
Section 12. Within thirty days of the adjournment sine die of
each regular and extra Session of the General Assembly subsequent
to the Session of nineteen hundred forty-eight, the Commission
shall meet and shall forthwith proceed to codify into the Code of
Virginia the acts of that Session in the same manner as is provided
in this act for the codification of the acts of the session of nineteen
hundred forty-eight.

Section 13. A sum sufficient, not to exceed one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, is appropriated out of the general fund
of the State treasury for the biennium beginning July one, nineteen
hundred forty-eight, in order to carry out the provisions of this
act.

Section 14. An emergency exists and this act is in force
from its passage.