Chap. 782.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2498 of the code of Vir-
ginia, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved February 27, 1894.
as amended and re-enacted by an act approved February 29, 1896, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved February 28, 1898, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved March 3, 1898, and as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved January 17, 1900, in relation to deeds of
trust and other incumbrances.

Approved March 5, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-four hundred and ninety-eight of the code of Virginia as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved February twenty-seventh, eighteen
hundred and ninety-four, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
February twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and nincty-six, as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved February twenty-eighth, eighteen
hundred and ninety-eight, and as amended and re-enacted by an act ap-
proved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved January seventeenth, nineteen hun-
dred, in relation to deeds of trust and other incumbrances, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2498. When payment or satisfaction is made of a debt secured by
mortgage, deed of trust, vendor’s or mechanics’ lien, it shall be the duty
of such lien creditor, unless he shall have delivered a proper release deed,
to cause such payment or satisfaction to be entered on the margin of
the page in the book where such incumbrance is recorded; and for any
failure to do so, after five days’ notice, if the note, bond, or other evi-
dence of debt secured by such lien shall be left with the lien creditor,
or with the clerk in whose office such incumbrance is recorded, until the
lien is released, as provided by this section, shall forfeit twenty dollars.
Such entry of payment or satisfaction shall be signed by the creditor or
his duly authorized agent, attorney, or attorney in fact, and the note,
bond or other evidence of debt secured by such lien, duly cancelled, shall
be produced before the clerk in whose office such incumbrance is re-
corded, or an affidavit shall be filed by the said creditor or his duly
authorized agent or attorney, or attorney in fact, with such clerk,
to the effect that the debt therein secured and intended to be
released or discharged has been paid to such creditor, his agent,
attorney, or attorney in fact, who was, when the said debt was
so satisfied, entitled and authorized to receive the same, and that
such note, bond or other evidence of debt has been cancelled and
delivered to the person by whom it was paid, or has been lost or de-
stroyed and cannot be produced as herein required; and when so signed
and the signature thereto attested by such clerk, with a certificate that
said note, bond, or other evidence of debt duly cancelled was produced
before such clerk, or that the affidavit hereinbefore required has been
duly filed with such clerk, the same shall operate as a release of the
incumbrance, as to which such payment or satisfaction is entered, as
fully and effectually as if the said marginal entry were a formal deed
of release duly executed and recorded. Any person who owns or has any
interest in real estate on which such incumbrance exists may, after
twenty days’ notice thereof to the person entitled to such incumbrance,
apply to the county or corporation court of the county or corporation
in whose clerk’s office such incumbrance is recorded, or to the chancery
court of the city of Richmond if it be in the clerk’s office of the said
court, to have the same released or discharged, and upon proof that it
has been paid or discharged, or upon its appearing to the court that more
than twenty years have elapsed since the maturity of the lien or incum-
brance, raising a presumption of payment, and which is not rebutted at
the hearing, such court shall order the same to be entered by the clerk
on the margin of the page in the book wherein the incumbrance is
recorded, which entry, when so made, shall operate as a release of such
incumbrance; and the clerk’s fee for so releasing on the margin of the
page of the book wherein the incumbrance or lien is recorded shall be
fifty cents. All releases heretofore made by any court under this section
upon such presumption of payment so arising and not rebutted, shall
after the lapse of one year from the passage of this act, if no objection
be made during that time, be validated. A release of a deed of trust or
a reconveyance of the property embraced therein, may in all cases be
made to the original grantor, whether living or dead, and any release or
reconveyance heretofore or hereafter so made shall enure both in law
and in equity to the successors in title of such grantor.

2. All acts and parts of acts, so far as they are in conflict with this act,
are hereby repealed.

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