Chap. 343.—An ACT to amend and reenact Section 6235, as amended, of the
Code of Virginia providing for perpetuation of testimony. {H 390]

Approved March 31, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section sixty-two hundred thirty-five, as amended, of the
Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as follows:

Section 6235. A person desirous of perpetuating the testimony
of witnesses as to a matter, or matters, in respect to which there is no
suit or action, may file with a commissioner in chancery of a court
wherein, if there were a bill to perpetuate the testimony, such bill might
be filed, a petition addressed to such commissioner stating such matter,
or matters, and what persons may be affected by the testimony. Where-
upon, the commissioner shall appoint for the beginning of the proceeding
on the petition, a time and place, whereof reasonable notice shall be
given to the persons who may be so affected. If any of them be an
infant, or an insane person, the commissioner ‘shall appoint a guardian
ad litem to attend on his behalf. If any of them be non-residents of Vir-
ginia, or be unknown to the petitioner, notice shall be given to such
persons by publication in accordance with section six thousand and
forty-three of the Code of Virginia. At such time and place, the com-
missioner shall begin the proceeding and before finally closing the
same shall take in writing the evidence of any witnesses adduced by
the petitioner, or by any other person in interest, with respect to the
matter, or matters, set forth in such petition.

Upon request of any party in interest he shall issue summons for
the attendance of witnesses and he shall have the same powers to compel
the attendance of witnesses summoned upon behalf of any party in
interest and to adjourn the proceeding from time to time and place to
place as provided in sections sixty-one hundred eighty-one, sixty-one
hundred eighty-three and sixty-one hundred eighty-four of the Code
of Virginia as amended. He shall return said petition with a report of
his proceedings thereon, and the testimony taken by him to the clerk’s
office of the court by which he was appointed. Such court, or the judge
thereof in vacation, on motion of the petitioner or any other party in
interest, shall, if it appears that proper and sufficient grounds therefor
exist, enter a decree or order directing that the testimony so taken be
perpetuated and preserved. The cost of any such proceedings shall be
paid by the petitiorler, except that the other parties in interest who adduce
witnesses on their behalf or who make use of witnesses adduced by
others, shall each pay their proportionate part of the cost of the tran-
scribed testimony and evidence shown by the report of the Commissioner
to have been taken or given on behalf of each of such parties. Such
testimony shall be available to, and may be read on behalf of, any
party to any suit or action thereafter instituted concerning the subject
matter, or matters, of such petition, and as to the rights or interests of all
parties to whom such notice was given, and their assigns, or successors
in title, such testimony shall have the same effect as if it had been taken
on a bill to perpetuate the testimony. .

If the testimony to be so taken shall be in relation to the momuments
or lines marking the boundaries of any tract or parcel of land, the names
and places of residence of all persons whose interests may be affected
by the establishment and location of such monuments or lines, if known
to the petitioner, shall be set out in the petition, and such interested per-
sons shall be given notice as above provided for.

The clerk to whose office such petition, report and evidence is returned
shall carefully file and preserve the same, and if such testimony relates to
the monuments or lines marking the boundaries of any tract or parcel
of land or any part thereof, or shall relate to any right, title or interest
in real estate, shall record the petition, report and such decree or order
as the court may have entered therein, in the current deed book in his
office, and index the papers so recorded by him, in the general index to
the deed books in his office, in the names of all parties shown by the
report or testimony to be interested therein, with the additional words
“petition to perpetuate testimony”, and a reference to the place where
such testimony is filed in his office.