Chap. 350.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3376 of the Code of Vir-
ginia.

Approved December 8, 1903.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty-three hundred and seventy-six of the Code of Virginia be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 3376. How court may proceed ,when original papers lost or de-
stroved; plaintiff may commence new suit in such case; when certified
copy of a paper, required to be recorded, may be used as evidence.—If, in
any cause, the original papers therein, or any of them, or the record for
or in an appellate court, or any paper filed or connected with such record,
be lost or destroyed, the court wherein the case is, or in which it would
or ought to be, but for such loss or destruction, may docket the same; and,
on affidavit of such loss or destruction, the case may be proceeded in,
heard, and determined, upon an authenticated copy of what is lost or
destroyed, or proof of the contents thereof, or upon proof of so much
of the contents thereof, as may enable the court to proceed in, hear, and
determine the case, and make such entry, order, or decree therein, as if
the papers, or any of them, had not been lost or destroyed. ‘The court
may, in its discretion, require new pleadings to be made up, in whole or
in part. A plaintiff, instead of proceeding under this section, may com-
mence and prosecute a new suit for the same matter; and no certified
copy of any deed,, will, account, or other original paper required by law
to be recorded in any circuit or city court, shall be used by any party
as evidence for him, in any case where the original deed, will, account, or
other original paper, or the record thereof, has been destroyed, until such
copy has been admitted to record in the place of the original which has
been destroyed.

2. This act shall be in force on and after the first day of February,
nineteen hundred and four.