CHAPTER 452

An Act to amend and reenact § 8-805 of the Code of Virginia, relating
to how depositions of nonresident witnesses may be taken. rH 397]

Approved March 31, 1964

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
te That § 8-305 of the Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as

ollows:

§ 8-305. The deposition of a witness, whether a party to the suit or
not, who resides out of this State, or is out of it in the service thereof, or
of the United States, may be taken before any commissioner appointed
by the Governor of this State, or any justice of the peace, notary, or other
officer authorized to take depositions in the state wherein the witness
may be, or, if the deposition is to be taken in a foreign country, before
any person that the parties may agree upon in writing, or any American
minister plenipotentiary, charge d’affaires, consul-general, consul, vice-
consul, commercial agent appointed by the government of the United
States, or any other representative of the United States in a foreign coun-
try, including commissioned officers of the armed services of the United
States, or the mayor, or other magistrate of any city, town, or corporation
in such country, or any notary therein. Any person, before whom a depo-
sition may so be taken, may administer an oath to the witness, and take
and certify the deposition with his official seal annexed; and if he have
none, then the genuineness of his signature shall be authenticated by
some officer of the same state or country, under his official seal, unless
the person taking such acknowledgment be a commissioned officer of the
armed services of the United States, in which case no seal shall be re-
quired, but his signature shall be authenticated by the commanding officer
of the military installation or ship to which he is assigned, or unless the
deposition is taken by a justice out of this State, but in the United States,
or before some person agreed upon in writing by the parties, in which
case his certificate shall be received without any seal annexed, or other
authentication of his signature. When a deposition is taken before some
person agreed upon in writing by the parties other than an officer author-
ized to take the deposition, such writing shall be returned with the depo-
sition, eand the deposition shall not be read unless such writing is so
returned.