CHAPTER 360

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 8-674, 8-675, 8-676, 8-678, 8-679, 8-680,
8-682, 8-685, 8-686, 8-687, 8-688, 8-689, and 8-689.1 of the Code of
Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section num-
bered 8-689.4, all of which relate to biils for sale or encumbrance of
land of certain persons so as to include certain other persons there-
under and to validate prior proceedings.

[H 453]

Approved March 31, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 8-674, 8-675, 8-676, 8-678, 8-679, 8-680, 8-682, 8-685, 8-686,
8-687, 8-688, 8-689 and 8-689.1 of the Code of Virginia be amended and
reenacted, and that the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a section
numbered 8-689.4, as follows:

§ 8-674. When an infant or insane person or an incapacitated person
for whom a guardian or committee has been appointed under the provisions
of § 87-140 or an ex-service person for whom a trustee has been appointed
under the provisions of § 37-141 is entitled to or bound to renew any
lease, any person on behalf of such infant or insane, incapacitated or
ex-service person or any person interested may apply by petition or motion
in a summary way to the circuit court of the county or. circuit or corpora-
tion court of the corporation in which the land leased, or some part thereof
lies, and by the order of the court any person appointed by it may, from
time to time, surrender or accept a surrender of such lease, or take or
make a new lease of the same premises for such term and with such
provisions as the court directs. Such reasonable sums as are incurred to
renew any such lease shall, with interest thereon, be paid out of the profits
of the leasehold premises, and be a charge thereon until payment.

§ 8-675. If:

(1) The guardian of any infant,

(2) The committee of any insane person or the guardian or com-
mittee of any incapacitated person appointed under the provisions of

87-140,
5 (3) The trustee of any ex-service person appointed under the provi-
sions of § 37-141,

(4) The trustee of any other estate,

(5) An executor,

(6) Administrator with the will annexed,

(7) A curator of the will of any.decedent, or
(8) Any person interested in the subject matter, whether he be
interested with others or not,

Think:

(a) That the interest of the infant, insane or incapacitated person or
those for whom the estate is held or such ex-service person will be
promoted:

(i) By a sale or encumbrance of his or their estate, in whole or in part,

(ii) By an exchange of his or their estate for other real estate,

(iii) By encumbering such real estate for the purpose of borrowing
money to pay debts, or to educate or support such infant or to preserve
the estate or to be used to erect buildings or other improvements on same;

(b) That the interest of such infant or insane, incapacitated, ex-
service or other person or persons for whom such estate is held, or to whom
such estate belongs, will be promoted by the sale thereof or of the
timber, coal, oil, gas and minerals on or in the real estate, or by a
lease of such real estate or any part thereof for a term of years or by a
lease of the coal, oil, gas and minerals thereof, or of any or either of them;

Such guardian, committee, trustee of any such ex-service person,
other trustee, executor, or beneficiary, whether the estate of the infant
or insane, incapacitated, or ex-service person, or of any of the persons
interested, be absolute or limited, and whether there be or be not limited
thereon any other estate, vested or contingent, and whether the guardian,
committee, trustee or executor, or the infant or insane, incapacitated or
ex-Service person, or any of the persons interested, reside in this State or
not, may, for the purpose of obtaining such sale, exchange, redemption or
recovery or encumbrance, or making such lease, file a bill in equity or a
petition in any pending suit in the circuit court of the county or chancery,
circuit or corporation court of the corporation in which the estate proposed
to be sold, exchanged, encumbered or leased, or some part thereof, is.
Such bill or petition shall state plainly all of the estate, real or personal,
belonging to the infant or insane, incapacitated, ex-service, or other person,
or to be redeemed or recovered for his benefit pursuant to the provisions
of such act of Congress, or so held in trust, and all the facts calculated to
show the propriety of the sale, exchange, redemption or recovery, encum-
brance or lease and, when the object is to encumber the estate, such other
facts as are required by § 8-683.

§ 8-676. Such bill or petition shall be verified by the oath of the
plaintiff, and there shall be made parties defendant, when not plaintiff,
to such bill or petition the infant or insane, incapacitated or ex-service
person, the beneficiary in such trust, the trustee, the executor, the admin-
istrator with the will annexed, the curator, all those who would be the
heirs or distributees of the infant, insane, incapacitated or ex-service
defendant or defendants, if all such defendants were dead, the guardian
of any infant defendant, the committee of any insane defendant, the
guardian or committee of any incapacitated defendant, the trustee of any
such ex-service person who is defendant, if any such guardian, committee,
or trustee has already been appointed, and all others interested.

§ 8-678. No suit instituted under § 8-675 shall abate by reason of
the death of the infant, or insane, incapacitated, ex-service or other person
beneficially interested, after a lease, sale, or encumbrance has been made
in pursuance of a decree in such suit, but the same shall be continued
in the name of the original plaintiff until final decree, the court causing
such new parties to be made as may appear necessary or proper by reason
of the death of such decedent.

Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to authorize a
decree for the sale, lease or encumbrance of such estate to be entered,
or a sale of such estate made, after death of an infant, or insane, incapact-
tated or ex-service person in whose interest the suit was brought.

§ 8-679. To every infant, insane, incapacitated or ex-service person
defendant to a suit brought under §§ 8-674, 8-675 or 8-677, there shall be
appointed a guardian ad litem, who, as well as the infant, if over fourteen
years of age, shall answer the bill on oath in proper person. But if such
infant over fourteen years of age shall be beyond the limits of the Common-
wealth or is insane, or confined in any reformatory or prison, or refuses
to answer, no answer shall be required of such infant in his proper person.
Whenever the guardian ad litem shall file an answer in his proper person,
it shall be unnecessary for the guardian ad litem to file an answer for the
infant or insane, incapacitated or ex-service person defendant by himself as
guardian ad litem.

§ 8-6 Whenever a suit has heretofore been instituted for the sale
of any interest in real estate owned by an infant under fourteen years of
age, or of an Insane, incapacitated or ex-service person, and it appears
that a guardian ad litem has been duly appointed to protect such infant’s
or insane, incapacitated or ex-service person’s interest and that such
guardian has filed an answer for such infant, or insane, incapacitated or
ex-service person, or has answered in his own proper person, no deed
acquired by a bona fide purchaser in such proceedings shall be invalid
because such guardian failed to file both of such answers; provided, it
further appears that such infant’s, or insane, incapacitated or ex-service
person’s rights have been fully protected by such guardian ad litem in
other particulars of such suit, and that such proceedings have been fairly
and honestly conducted without suspicion of any attempt to injure or
defraud such infant, or insane, incapacitated or ex-service person.

§ 8-682. If it be clearly shown, independently of any admissions in the
answers, that the interest of the infant, or insane, incapacitated, ex-service
or other person in interest, or beneficiaries in the trust, as the case may be,
will be promoted, and the court is of opinion that the rights of no person
will be violated thereby, it may decree an encumbrance or a sale of such
estate or real estate, or any part thereof, or the redemption or recovery
thereof pursuant to the provisions of an act of Congress, approved June
thirteenth, nineteen hundred thirty-three, known as the Home Owners’
Loan Act of nineteen hundred thirty-three, or if it be real estate an
exchange of the whole, or any part thereof, for other real estate or a sale
or exchange of timber, coal, oil, gas and minerals thereon or any or either
of them, or a lease of such real estate or any part thereof, or a lease of the
coal, oil, gas and minerals thereon, or of any or either of them, for such
term of years as the court may deem proper, taking for the purchase money,
in case of a sale on credit, ample security, and if the sale be of real estate,
retaining a lien thereon; or the court may decree that the real estate or
any part thereof may be encumbered for the purpose of borrowing money
to pay debts, or to educate or support infants, or to preserve the estate or
to erect buildings, or other improvements on such real estate upon such
terms and conditions as may appear proper.

§ 8-685. The proceeds of sale, or rents, income, or royalties, arising
from the sale or lease, or other disposition, of lands of persons under dis-
abilities, whether in a suit for sale or lease thereof, or in a suit for parti-
tion, or in condemnation proceedings, shall be invested under the direction
of the court for the use and benefit of the persons entitled to the estate;
and in case of a trust estate subject to the uses, limitations, and conditions,
contained in the writing creating the trust. The court shall take ample
security for all investments so made, and from time to time require addi-
tional security, if necessary, and make any proper order for the faithful
application and safe investment of the fund, and for the management and
preservation of any properties or securities in which the same has been
invested, and for the protection of the rights of all persons interested
therein, whether such rights be vested or contingent; but nothing herein-
before contained shall prevent the court having charge thereof from
directing such funds when the sum to be distributed on behalf of any one
person does not exceed two thousand dollars, to be paid over to the legally
appointed and qualified guardian, committee or trustee of the infant or
insane, incapacitated or ex-service person, whenever the court is satisfied
that the guardian, committee or trustee has executed sufficient bond, or
from applying at any time all or any portion thereof to the proper needs
and requirements of the ward, or of the insane, incapacitated or ex-
service person. After the ward shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one
years or the insane or ex-service person shall have been restored to sanity,
or the guardian or committee of the incapacitated person discharged, the
court may order that the entire amount of the fund, or any part thereof,
be paid over to him, regardless of such needs and requirements.

§ 8686. When a decree or order is made under this chapter for the
Sale of real estate of an infant or insane, incapacitated or ex-service
married person * , the spouse, if of the age of twenty-one years, may if
he or she thinks fit, join in the conveyance and thereby release * the right
of dower or curtesy, or sell and convey all his or her estate and interest
in the granted premises in like manner as he or she might have done by a
conveyance thereof, made jointly with the * spouse if * such spouse had
been under no legal disability.

§ 8-687. In case of any such release by the wife of her right of
dower, or of any such conveyance of her own estate, the proceeds of the
sale shall be so disposed of under the order of the court directing the sale
as to secure to her the same right, use, and benefit of and in the principal
sum and the income thereof that she would have had of and in the real
estate and the income thereof, if it had not been sold; or if she prefer it,
she may receive or have secured to her out of such proceeds, such sum in
gross as in the opinion of the court may be sufficient to compensate her
for her interest in such real estate; and the same shall be applicable in
case of release or conveyance by the husband of his right of curtesy.

§ 8-688. If the husband of an insane wife or of an incapacitated
person for whom a guardian or committee shall have been appointed under
the provisions of § $7-140 or of an ex-service person for whom a trustee
shall have been appointed under the provisions of § 37-141 wishes to sell
or encumber real estate and to have her right of dower therein released,
or if the wife of an insane husband or of an incapacitated person for whom
a guardian or committee shall have been appointed under the provisions
of § 87-140 or of an ex-service person for whom a trustee shall have been
appointed under the provisions of § 37-141 wishes to sell or encumber
real estate and have his right of curtesy therein released, he or she, as
the case may be, may petition the circuit court of the county or circuit or
corporation court of the corporation in which such estate, or some part
thereof, is. To such petition such insane or incapacitated person and his
or her committee or guardian, if there be one, or such ex-service person
and his trustee, shall be made parties defendant, and the court shall
appoint a guardian ad litem for such insane or incapacitated defendant or
ex-service person, who, as well as such guardian or committee, if there be
one, or such trustee, shall answer the petition on oath. If it appears to
the court to be proper, an order may be made for the execution of such
release by a commissioner to be appointed by the court for that purpose,
which release shall be effectual to pass such right of dower or of curtesy,
as the case may be. But, in the case of a sale the court shall make such
order as in its opinion may be proper to secure to the insane or incapaci-
tated wife or husband, or the ex-service person, as the case may be, the
same interest in the purchase money and the income thereof that she or
he would have had in the real estate and income thereof if it had not been
sold, or, at the discretion of the court, to secure to her or to him, as the
case may be, out of the purchase money, such sum in gross as in the court’s
opinion may be sufficient to compensate her for right of dower or him
for right of curtesy.

§ 8-689. What may be received under the preceding provisions of
this article or under article 3 of this chapter, for the real estate of an
infant or insane, incapacitated or ex-service person, sold or divided, or so
much thereof as may remain at his or her death intestate, shall, if he or
she continue until death incapable from any cause of making a will, pass
to those who would have been entitled to the land if it had not been sold
or divided.

§ 8-689.1. If the personal estate of any person for whom a guardian
or committee has been appointed under any of the provisions of §§ 37-136
to 37-143, inclusive, be insufficient for the discharge of his debts or if the
personal estate or residue thereof after payment of debts and the rents
and profits of his real estate be insufficient for his maintenance and that
of his family, if any, the guardian or committee of his estate may petition
the court by which he was appointed for authority to mortgage, lease or
sell so much of the real estate of such insane or incapacitated or feeble-
minded person or idiot as may be necessary for the purposes aforesaid, or
any of them, setting forth in the petition the particulars and amount of
the estate, real and personal, the application which has been made of
any personal estate and an account of the debts and demands existing
against the estate.

§ 8-689.4. Every sale, lease, encumbrance or exchange of land of an
incapacitated person, for whom a guardian or committee has been ap-
pointed, in a suit heretofore instituted and conducted according to the
provisions of this chapter, and all proceedings in such suit, are hereby
validated as if such suit had been instituted after the effective date hereof.