CHAPTER 577

AN ACT to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Chapter 6 of Title 59
a new article numbered 6.1, containing sections numbered 59-114.5
through 59-114.9, to require weighmasters at certain places where
livestock are bought and sold; to prescribe for their selection and
duties; to provide for payment of the costs of their services and for
the payment of certain funds to the Department of Agriculture and
Immigration, and the expenditure thereof; to require the use of cer-
tain equipment; to prescribe penalties; and to provide for the ap-
plicability of the article when adopted by local governing bodies.

[S 181]
Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding in Chapter 6 of
Title 59 a new article numbered 6.1, containing sections numbered 59-114.5
through 59-114.9, as follows:

Article 6.1

§ 59-114.5. At every livestock auction market, or receiving station
or packing plant where livestock are bought directly from producers, all
weighing shall be done by or in the presence of weighmasters appointed by
the Commissioner. The Commissioner shall appoint as many weigh-
masters as may be necessary to perform such duties, and, subject to
Chapter 9 of Title 2, shall fix their compensation, and may remove them
at any time. Such weighmasters shall see that all weights of livestock
are correctly made and correctly recorded.

§ 59-114.6. All reasonable and actual costs of such service not ex-
ceeding fifteen dollars per day per person employed as weighmaster shall
be paid by the person or persons who operate or conduct such market,
station or plant and shall become due on the fifteenth day of the month
next succeeding that in which such service is rendered, and upon default
thereof may be recovered by civil action brought in the name of the
Commissioner. The moneys collected pursuant to this section shall be
paid into the State treasury and are hereby appropriated to the Depart-
ment of Agriculture and Immigration as reimbursement for the expendi-
tures made in furnishing such service.

§ 59-114.7. The weightbeams or other indicators of weight on all
scales used by any such weighmaster shall be so situated or constructed
as to be accessible to the view of all persons in interest, and the indica-
tions thereon shall be clearly discernible at such place of access. If such
scales are not equipped with recording beams, all weighing of livestock
shall be done by a weighmaster; if they are so equipped, the weighing
may be done either in the presence of the weighmaster or by the weigh-
master, at his option.

§ 59-114.8. Any person operating or conducting any such livestock
auction market or any weighmaster employed under this article, who
shall violate any provision of this article, shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished accordingly.

§ 59-114.9. The provisions of this article with reference to weigh-
masters shall not become applicable in any county or city until the govern-
ing body of the county or city shall by affirmative recorded vote declare
such provisions operative therein. Provided the provisions shall not
become applicable to any livestock auction market or receiving station, or
packing plant within any incorporated city entirely surrounded by one
or more counties until the governing body of the county or counties shall
declare by affirmative recorded vote that the provisions shall be operative
as to the livestock auction market or receiving station or packing plant in
such adjacent city.