Chap. 20.—An ACT to prescribe and regulate the procedure by which unpaid sub-
scriptions to joint stock companies may be recovered by § said companies, their
creditors, receivers, trustees, assignees, or any other person.

Approved December 22, 1897.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the title
and sections one and two of an act entitled an act to prescribe the mode
by which unpaid subscriptions to joint stock companies may be recoy-
ered by said companies, their receivers or assignee, approved December
nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, he amended and re-enacted
<0 as to read as follows:

$1. All suits or motions for the recovery of unpaid subseriptions to
the stock of any joint stock company sh: ill be brought in the courts of
common law of this commonwealth in the county or corporation where
the defendant resides, if he be a resident of this state, or in the case of a
joint or partnership subscription, then in the county or corporation in this
state in which either of the joint subscribers or any member of the partnership
subscribing shall reside; and said courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction
to hear and determine all questions involving the validity of such sub-
scriptions, but nothing herein contained shall be construed, to deprive courts
of chancery of their jurisdiction to settle and wind up the affairs of ansolvent
corporations or to maké assessments on -unpard stock subscriptions.

—§ 2. In all cases where ut 18 necessary to resort to a court of equity Jor. the

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purposes aforesaid, the courts shall direct the trustee, assignee, or receiver, as
the case may be, to sue at law, when necessary to recover any call or asxexs-
ment, and the defendant shall be entitled to a jury where the amount in-
volved exceeds twenty dollars, and said suits shall be governed in all re-
xpects by the provisions of this act. All pleas, defences, and evidence
which would be admissible if the company were solvent shall be equally
admissible and shall have the same effect in law in any action brought
after the insolvency of any such company, except where the defence relied
upon is an agreement on the part of the corporation not to assess the face value
of the stock subscribed, and such agreement was unknown to the creditor at the
date of his contract; and this act shall apply to all suits heretofore or
hereafter brought where no final judgment or decree on the merits has
been rendered: provided, that where chancery suits are pending at the
time of the passage of this act, in which it is sought to recover unpaid
stock subscriptions, the statute of limitations shall not run as to any al-
leged subscription, during the time which shall have elapsed between the
institution of such suit, and one month after an order shall have been
entered authorizing a common law action, as provided in this act for the
recovery of such subscription.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.