Chap. 462.—An ACT to provide for the recordation by clerks of the county or
corporation courts of lists of conveyances and partitions that may have been
returned thereto by the clerk of the general court, and may now be found
therein, and declaring the effect to be given said lists when so recorded.

Approved February 21, 1900.

Whereas in an act passed by the general assembly of Virginia, on the
thirteenth day of December, seventeen hundred and ninety-two, entitled
an act reducing into one the several acts and parts of acts concerning
the general court, and prescribing the manner of proceeding therein in
certain cases, it was provided as follows—to wit:
“The said court shall have power and authority to receive probate of
all deeds whatsoever concerning lands in any part of this commonwealth,
to issue commissions for the privy examination of any feme covert, and to
admit the same to record; as also to receive proof of any other deed or
instrument of writing whatsoever, and admit the same to record therein,
if they shall be of opinion that the same is proper to be done. A deed
for lands now, or at any time hereafter partly proved in the general court,
may either be fully proved there or shall be delivered by the clerk
thereof to any person authorized to demand the same, with an endorse-
ment of the proof made, and it may be fully proved and recorded in
the court of the district or county in which the lands lie”; and

Whereas in an act passed by the general assembly of Virginia, on the
thirteenth dav of December, seventeen hundred and ninety-two, entitled
an act prescribing the mode of ascertaining the taxable property within
the commonwealth, and of collecting the public revenue, it was provided
as follows—to wit:

“The clerk of the general court, and the clerks of the several district
courts, on or before the first day of May, annually, are hereby directed
to make return, and the clerks of the county or corporation courts to
deliver to the said commissioners a list of conveyances or partitions
recorded in their respective courts within the preceding year, certifying
the quantity and situation of the lands so conveyed; and the register of
the land office, on or before the first day of April, annually, shall in like
manner transmit a list of all grants issued within the year preceding,
to be by them valued at a price equal to other lands within their re-
spective districts, similar in soil and situation; and such commissioners
shall give credit to the person disposing of the same, and charge the pur-
chaser or receiver with the taxes payable thereon; and in like manner
in cases where lands have not been heretofore valued, or where lands
which now are vacant and mav hereafter be taken up, the said commis-
sioners shall, and they are herely, required to value the same and charge
the owner thereof with the tax in manner aforesaid ”; and

Whereas in pursuance of the act last above named, the clerk of the
general court made return to the clerks of the county and corporation
courts of lists of conveyances and partitions recorded in the general
court certifying the quantity and situation of the lands so conveyed; and

Whereas in an act passed by the general assembly of Virginia, on the
twenty-first day of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, entitled an
act providing for the execution of judgments and decrees of court which
may cease to exist, and for the custody of their records and papers, and to

revent cases from being discontinued, it was provided as follows—to wit:

“That as to the general court, which it is hereby declared is not to
continue after the first day of Julv next, the papers and records of all
causes and matters which on that day shall be depending and undeter-
mined therein, and all books, records, and papers whatsoever, which on
the said day may be in the custody of its clerk, shall be transferred to,
and remain in custody of the clerk of the circuit court of the city of
Richmond ”; and

Whereas all the records of the general court were transferred to the
sircuit court of the city of Richmond; and

Whereas the records of the circuit court of the city of Richmond were
partially destroyed by fire in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five;
now, therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the clerks
of the county and corporation courts shall, at the request of any one
interested, record in their cufrent deed book all such lists of conveyances
and partitions, if any, that have been returned to their respective courts
by the clerk of the general court, and may now be found therein, and
index the same in the manner provided by statute for deeds; and their
fee shall be the sum of one dollar in each case, to be paid by the person
making such request.

2. When any such list is so recorded a copy thereof, certified by the
clerk, shall have as to any deed mentioned therein, all the effect of the
original deed, and be received as evidence in lieu thereof, in all suits at
law and in equity, and any deed mentioned therein shall be taken prima
facie as a deed of bargain and sale in fee simple.

3. When any deed that may have been recorded in the general court
ig material in any suit at law or in equity to establish or defend any
title to lands, tenements, or hereditaments, such list, so recorded in the
county or corporation court aforesaid, shall be sufficient proof of the due
execution and recordation of any deed mentioned therein, and no further
evidence shall be necessary as to the due execution and recordation of
such deed: provided, that in any action at law brought for the possession
of any tract of land, by any party where such recorded list is material
to establish his title thereto, if the defendant can show that for the last
fifteen years, for all lands lying east of the Alleghany mountains, and
for the last ten years for all lands lying west of the Alleghany mountains,
he has paid the taxes on the lands in controversy in such action at law,
and has had actual, open, uninterrupted, notorious, and adverse posses-
sion of the same, under color of title for the period of the time aforesaid,
the suit as to such defendant shall be dismissed at the cost of the plaintiff.

4. The provisions of this act shall not be used in any suit, whether at
law or in equity, now pending, unless the defendant or defendants therein
refuse to consent to a dismissal of the same, and any complainant or
complainants therein shall be estopped from claiming any benefits under
the provisions of this act until he or they shall have first moved the
court to dismiss such suit; and the court in which any such suit is pend-
ing is hereby directed and empowered, upon such motion being made, to
dismiss the same. and upon the dismissal of such suit the rights of all
parties shall be the same as if no suit had been brought: provided, how-
ever, that in any action at law or suit in equity against a junior patentee
the provisions of this act shall not affect the rights of said junior patentee.
but said junior patentee shall have all the rights that now exist under
the law, and none other.

. 5. This act shall be in force from its passage.

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