Chap. 256.—An ACT to Amend and Re-enact Sections 6, 8, 14, and 15, and
to Repeal Sections 7, 16, 17, and 18, of Chapter 150 of the Code of Vir-
ginia (Edition of 1860), Concerning Warrants for Small Claims.

Approved March 29, 1871.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That sections six,
eight, fourteen, and fifteen, of chapter one hundred and fifty
of the Code of Virginia (eighteen hundred and sixty), be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Ҥ 6. After thirty days from any such judgment, no new
trial shall be granted in the case; nor shall it be granted within
the thirty days, unless the opposite party be present at the
time of the application, or unless after five days’ notice to him,
if in the county or corporation, of the time and place of the
application for such new trial. The justice who rendered the
judgment, shall alone have power to grant such new trial,
while he is in office; if he die, resign, be absent from the
county, or be removed, it may be granted by another justice.
Bat such new trial shall be granted of right, on such security
being given as the justice approves, for the payment of the
judgment, and all costs up to and upon the final trial. The
verbal acknowledgment of any security taken under this sec-
tion, shall be sufficient, and the endorsement by the justice of
the name of the security upon the warrant on which the judg-
ment is rendered, shall be conclusive evidence of such acknow-
ledgment.” :

Ҥ 8. The justice rendering any judgment may issue a writ
of fieri facias thereon immediately, if there be no new trial
granted. |

Ҥ 14, When an execution on a judgment of a justice, or a
warrant of distress is levied upon property not of greater value
than twenty dollars, which is claimed by any person other than
the party against whom it issued, such person may apply to a
justice of the county or corporation in which the levy is for a
warrant to a constable, requiring him to summon both the
creditor and debtor, to show cause why the property should
not be discharged from the levy. The justice shall issue such
warrant, returnable in not less than tive days; and if an earlier
day shall have been fixed for the sale of the property, he shall
make an order on the warrant, requiring the postponement of
the sale until after return day. Upon hearing the parties, or
such of them as may attend after being summoned, he shall
order the officer to deliver the property to the claimant, or the
person from whom it was taken, or shall dismiss the summons,
as may seem most proper, and may give such judgment for
costs as he may deem just.

_ “$15. The justice, to whose judgment a new trial is awarded
In pursuance of section six, shall immediately direct the con-
stable to summon two other justices of the county or corpora-
tion to attend, at a designated time and place in the township
or corporation where the warrant was brought, to try said
cause, who, together with said justice, shall rehear the case, and
the judgment of a majority of said justices shall be final, to
which no new trial shall be awarded.”

2. Sections seven, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, of said
chapter, are hereby repealed.

3. This act shall be in force from the first day of July,
eighteen hundred and seventy-one.