Chap. 531.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 2616 and 2620, as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved February 23, 1888, and as further amended
and re-enacted by an act approved March 5, 1888, and as further amended and
re-enacted by an act approved April 2, 1902, and sections 2621 and 2622 of the
Code of Virginia of 1887, so as to authorize and prescribe certain rules govern-
ing the leasing of the lands of infants or insane persons, and to repeal section
2617, and to amend and re-enact section 2625 of the Code of Virginia, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved February 5, 1896.

Approved December 31, 1903.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
twenty-six hundred and sixteen and twenty-six hundred and twenty, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved February twenty-third, eigh-
teen hundred and eighty-eight, as further amended and re-enacted by
an act approved March fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight; as fur-
ther amended and re-enacted by an act approved April second, nineteen
hundred and two, and sections twenty-six hundred: and twenty-one and
twenty-six hundred and twenty-two of the Code of Virginia of eighteen
hundred and eighty-seven, and section twenty-six hundred and twenty-
five of the Code of Virginia, as amended and re-enacted by an act ap-
proved February fifth, cighteen hundred and ninety-six, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2616. If the guardian of any minor, or the committee of any insane
person, think that the intcrests of the ward or insane person will be pro-
moted by the sale of his estate, or estate in which he is interested with
others, infants or adults, or if it be real estate, by an exchange of such
real estate for other real estate, or by encumbering such real estate for
the purpose of borrowing money to be used to erect buildings or other
improvements on the same; or if the trustee or trustees of any estate, or
any person or persons interested in any estate in trust, whether he or
they be interested with others or not, think the interest of those for
whom the estate is held will be promoted by a sale of the whole or any
part thereof; or, if it be real estate, by an exchange thereof for other
real estate, or by encumbering such real estate for the purpose of bor-
rowing money to be used to erect buildings or other improvements on the
same; or if the same be real estate and such guardian, committee, trus-
tee or trustees, person or persons interested in any estate in trust, think
that the interest of such ward, insane person, or persons for whom such
estate is held, will be promoted by the sale of the timber, coal, oil, gas,
and minerals thereof, or of any or either of them; or if the same be real
estate and such guardian, committee, or trustee or trustees, or person or
persons interested in any such estate in trust think that the interest of
such ward, insane person, or person or persons for whom the estate is
held: will be promoted by a lease of such real estate, or any part thereof,
for a term of years, or by a lease of the coal, oil, gas, and minerals
thereof, or of any or either of them, such guardian, committee, trustee
or trustees, or beneficiary or beneficiaries, whether the estate of the
minor, insane person, or of any of the persons interested, be absolute or
limited, and whether there be or be not limited thereon any other estate,
vested or contingent, and whether the guardian, committec, trustee or
trustees, or the minor or insane person, or any of the persons interested,
reside in this State or not, may, for the purpose of obtaining such sale,
exchange, or encumbrance, or making such lease, file a bill in equity in
the circuit court of the county or the circuit or corporation court of the
corporation in which the estate proposed to be sold, exchanged, encum-
bered, or leased, or some part thereof, may be, stating plainly all the
estate, real and personal, belonging to such infant or insane person, or so
held in trust, and all the facts calculated to show the propriety of the
sale, exchange, encumbrance, or lease.

The bill shall be verified by the oath of the plaintiff, and the infant or
insane person, or of the beneficiary or beneficiaries in such trust, and the
trustee or trustees (when not plaintiff or plaintiffs), and all others in-
terested, shall be made defendants; and, also, where there is an infant or
insane defendant, all those who would be his heirs or distributees if he
were dead.

§ 2620. If it be clearly shown, independently of any admissions in the
answers, that the interests of the infant, insane person, or beneficiaries
in the trust, as the case may be, will be promoted, and the court is of
opinion that the rights of no person will be violated thereby, it may
decree a sale of said estate, or of any part thereof; or, if it be real estate,
an exchange of the whole or any part thereof, for other real estate, or a
sale or exchange of the timber, coal, oil, gas, and minerals thereof, or
any or either of them, or a lease of such real estate, or of any part
thereof, or a lease of the coal, oil, gas, and mincrals thereof, or of any
or either of them, for such term of years as the court may deem proper,
taking for the purchase moncy, in case of a sale on credit, ample secu-
rity; and if the sale be of real estate, retaining a lien thereon; or the
court may decree that the real estate may be encumbered for the purpose
of borrowing money to be used: to erect buildings or other improvements
on said real estate upon such terms and conditions as may appear proper:
provided, that in case of a lease on such real estate, or a lease of the
coal, oil, gas, and minerals thereof, or of any or either of them, the con-
tract of lease proposed to be executed by such guardian, committee, trus-
tee or trustees shall, before being executed, be submitted to and approved
by said circuit or corporation court: and provided, further, that when a
decree is sought to encumber real estate by borrowing money to be used
in erecting buildings or other improvements on same, the court shall
first ascertain the present cash value of the real estate so sought to be
encumbered, and so provide in its decree that, in event of a sale to pay
off the amount of money borrowed, said value so ascertained (without in-
terest) shall be preserved and paid over to the trustee or trustees, guar-
dian, or committee, or to such person or persons as may at the time of the
sale be authorized to receive it, and the surplus, or so much thereof as
may be necessary, after paying costs of sale, and the said value of the
real estate so ascertained shall be applied to the payment of the lien so
created: provided, that in all cases where such property is encumbered
as herein provided for, the rents and profits arising from the improve.
ments placed on such real estate shall first be applied to the payment of
the interest accruing upon the money so borrowed; and in event the life
tenant shall fail to pay such accruing interest, the court may take charge
of such property and sell or rent the same, as to it may appear proper:
provided, further, that any exchange of lands heretofore decreed or or-
dered by court shall be as valid as if such exchange had been so decreed
or ordered after the passage of this act.

§ 2621. At such sale the guardian, guardian ad litem, or committee, or
trustee shall not be a purchaser, either directly or indirectly, nor shall
such guardian, guardian ad litem, committee, or trustee be interested,
directly or indirectly with the lessee under any such lease.

§ 2622. The proceeds of sale or rents, income, or royalties arising
from such lease shall be invested, under the direction of the court, for
the use and benefit of the persons entitled to the estate; and, in case of a
trust estate, subject to the uses, limitations, and conditions contained in
the writing creating the trust. But into whosoever hands said proceeds
or said rents, income, or royalties shall be placed, the court shall take
ample security, and from time to time require additional security if
necessary, and make any other proper order for the faithful application
of the fund and for the management and preservation of any property or
securities in which the same may be invested, and for the protection of
the rights of all persons interested therein, whether such rights be vested
or contingent; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the court
having charge of such rents, income, and royalties from applying at any
time all or any portion thereof {o the proper needs and requirements of
any such ward! or insane person; and after any such ward shall have ar-
rived at the age of twenty-one years, or such insane person shall have
been restored to sanity, the court may order that the entire amount of
such rents, income, and royalties, or any part thereof, be paid over to
him, regardless of such needs and requirements.
§ 2625. How right of dower of insane wife and curtesy of insane hus-
band may be passed ; same rights in purchase money to be secured to her
or to him, or compensation made.—If the husband of an insane wife
wish to sell real estate and to have her right of dower therein released
to the purchaser, or if the wife of an insane husband wish to sell real
estate and have his right of curtesy therein released to the purchaser, he
or she, as the case may be, may petition for the purpose the circuit court
of the county or circuit or corporation court of the corporation in which
such estate, or some part thereof, is, to which petition such insane person
and his or her committee, if there be one, shall be made parties defend-
ant, and the court shall appoint a guardian ad litem to such insane de-
fendant, who, as well as such committee, if there be one, shall answer
the petition on oath; and if it appear to the court to be proper, an order
may be made for the execution of such a release by a commissioner to be
appointed by the court for that purpose, which release shall be effectual
to pass her said right of dower or his right of curtesy, as the case may
be, to the purchaser. ;

But the court shall make such order as in its opinion may be proper
to secure to the insane wife or husband, as the case may be, the same in-
terest in the purchase money and the income thereof that she or he would
have had in the real estate and income thereof if it had not been sold, or,
at the discretion of the court, to secure to her or to him, as the case may
be, out of the purchase money, such sum in gross as in the court’s opin-
ion may be sufficient to compensate her for right of dower or him for.
right of curtesy.

2. Be it further enacted, That section twenty-six hundred and seven-
teen of the Code of Virginia be, and the same is hereby, repealed.

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