CHAPTER 347

An Act to amend and reenact § 8-272, as amended, of the Code of Virginia,
relating to authentication of official records and their admissibility
into evidence.

(S 121]

Approved April 1, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 8-272, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 8-272. (a) An official record or an entry therein, when admissible
for any purpose, may be evidenced by an official publication thereof or by
a copy attested by the officer having the legal custody of the record, or by
his deputy, and accompanied with a certificate that such officer has the
custody. If the office in which the record is kept is within the United
States or within a territory or insular possession subject to the dominion
of the United States, the certificate may be made by a judge of a court of
record of the district or political subdivision in which the record is kept,
authenticated by the seal of the court, or may be made by any public officer
having a seal of office and having official duties in the district or political
subdivision in which the record is kept, authenticated by the seal of his
office. If the office in which the record is kept is in a foreign state or
country, the certificate may be made by a secretary of embassy or lega-
tion, consul general, consul, vice consul, or consular agent or by any officer
in the foreign service of the United States stationed in the foreign state
4 country in which the record is kept, and authenticated by the seal of

s Office.

(b) <A written statement signed by an officer having the custody of
an official record or by his deputy that after diligent search no record or
entry of a specified tenor is found to exist in the records of his office,
accompanied by a certificate as above provided, is admissible as evidence
that the records of his office contain no such record or entry.

(c) This rule does not prevent the proof of official records or of
entry or lack of entry therein by any method authorized by any applicable
statute or by the rules of evidence at common law.

(d) Printed copies of schedules and classifications and tariffs of
rates, fares and charges, and supplements thereto, filed with the Interstate
Commerce Commission, or State Corporation Commission, which show
respectively an Interstate Commerce Commission or State Corporation
Commission number, which may be stated in abbreviated form, as I.C.C.
No. ........ , or V.C.C. No. ........ and an effective date, may be received in
evidence without authentication or certification, and shall be presumed
to be correct copies of the original schedules, classifications, tariffs and
supplements on file with the Interstate Commerce Commission or State
Corporation Commission.

(e) Copies of official weather records in any office of the United
States Weather Bureau, when duly attested by the Weather Bureau official
having custody thereof and accompanied by a certificate that such officer
has such custody shall be received as evidence in any court or other pro-
ceeding for any purpose for which the original could be received without
any further proof of their official character or of the person whose name
1s signed thereto.