Chap. 212.—An ACT to establish the law and equity court of the city of
Riehmond, and to define its jurisdiction and relation to the other courts of
said city.

Approved February 12, 1894.

Whereas it is necessary for the administration of justice to estab-
lish an additional court for the city of Richmond:

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That there
ehall he established for the city of Richmond a court to be called the
law and equity court of the city of Richmond, to be held by a judge

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chosen by the joint vote of the two houses of the general assembly,
and who shall hold his office for a term of six years.

2. The said law and equity court shall, within the corporate limits
of the city of Richmond, have original jurisdiction concurrent with
the chancery court of the city of Richmond, to hear and determine
all suits and proceedings which are cognizable by law in the chancery
court of the city of Richmond, except the probate and recordation of
wills; the appointment and qualification of fiduciaries, save when it
may become necessary to appoint a fiduciary in the progress of a suit
pending in said court; the ex parte settlement of their accounts; the
docketing of judgments; the recordation, in the mode prescribed hy
law, of deeds and other papers authorized or required by law to be
recorded; and shall, within the same limits, have original jurisdic-
tion, concurrent with the circuit court of the city of Richmond, of
all such causes, motions, matters and things as are cognizable by
law in the circuit court of the city of Richmond, except all such
suits, motions, prosecutions, matters and things as are specially cog-
nizable by the circuit court of the city of Richmond or the judge
thereof, under chapters thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, one hundred and
fifty-seven, and two hundred and four, and section thirty-four hun-
dred and thirty-two of the code of eighteen hundred and eighty-
seven; and all statutes now in force or which may be hereafter en-
acted, devolving any duty or conferring any power or jurisdiction
upon the circuit courts of this commonwealth, or the judges thereof
respectively, shall be construed as embracing the law and equity
court of the city of Richmond, and the judge thereof respectively,
except as to matters of criminal jurisdiction. ,

The said law and equity court of the city of Richmond and the
judge thereof respectively shall have the same power as a circuit
court or a circuit judge to admit to bail and award injunctions, and
the same jurisdiction of proceedings by writ of habeas corpus, writ
of quo warranto, or information in the nature of a writ of quo
warranto, writ of mandamus and writ of prohibition; and appeals
and writs of error and of supersedeas from and to orders, decrees
and judgments of the said law and equity court shall be taken
and allowed as if they were from and to those of a circuit court or of
a circuit judge.

3. The said law and equity court shall hold four terms a year, be-
ginning on the second Monday in February, May, September and
December, and continuing so long as the business before the court
may require: provided that the first term of said law and equity
court shall begin on the second Monday in the month succeeding
the month in which this act takes effect.

4. The sheriff of the city of Richmond shall be the officer of said
law and equity court; shall attend the same, do and perform the
duties, have and exercise the powers, receive the compensation and
be liable to the penalties of a sheriff in relation to a circuit court.

There shall be a clerk of said law and equity court, who shall be
appointed or elected in the mode, at the time and for the same term
prescribed by the law for the appointment or election of the clerk of
the circuit court of the city of Richmond, and he shall perform
similar duties, be liable to the same penalties and be governed by
the same general laws as a clerk of a circuit court, and receive like
fees and emoluments and the same compensation as the clerk of the
circuit court of the city of Richmond; and the judge of said law
and equity court shall appoint a clerk, who shall hold office until
such election next succeeding the passage of this act. The judge of
said court shall appoint as many commissioners in chancery for said
court as he may deem necessary, not exceeding five in number; and
a comm ssioner In chancery of the chancery court of Richmond may
l appointed a commissioner of the said law and equity court. The
rules in the clerk’s office of said law and equity court shall be held
1u the same manner and governed by the same general laws as rules
In @ circuit court are or may hereafter he held or governed, and the
clerk of said court shall put upon the docket thereof, as soon as ma-
tured at rules and in the order in which they are matured, all cases
and motions matured during the terms of said court.

o. The salary of the judge of said law and equity court shall be
two thousand dollars per annum, to be paid by the state; but said
salary may be increased by the council of the city of Richmond,
such increase, however, not to exceed the sum of one thousand two
hundred dollars per annum, and to be paid out of the treasury of
said city ; the amount of such increase may be reduced by said coun-
cil, in its discretion: provided that such reduction shall not take
etfect until after the expiration of the term of office of the judge
whose compensation has been so increased.

6. The said chancery court and the said circuit court, or either of
them, may, for good cause shown, or to equalize the work of said
courts with said law and equity court, remove to said law and equity
court any case or cases pending, respectively, in said chancery court
or said circuit court of which said law and equity court has juris-
diction; and the said law and equity court may, for good cause
shown, or to equalize the work of said law and equity court with
said chancery court and said circuit court, remove any case or cases
pending in said law and equity court to said chancery court and to
said circuit court, respectively, or either of them which has juris-
diction of said case or cases so removed. The original papers in
every case removed under the provisions of this section, together
with a certified copy of the order of removal, shall be forthwith
transferred by the clerk of the court to which the case is removed,
and thereupon the said case shall, without any further formality,
be placed upon the docket of the court as if it had been brought
and the previous proceedings had therein.

7. During the absence from the city of the judge of the circuit
court of the city of Richmond, or judge of the hustings court of the
city of Richmond, or of the judge of the chancery court of the city
of Richmond, or of the judge of the law and equity court of the
city of Richmond, or in the case of inability of any of said judges,
from any cause, to hold a term of his court, or any part thereof, or
to sit in any particular case, or to discharge any duty required by
law; or in case of a vacancy in any of said offices, the said term,
or any part thereof, may be held, or the said case tried, or the said
duty discharged by any circuit judge, or by the judge of the said
hustings court, or by the judge of the said chancery court, or by the
judge of said law and equity court.

8. It shall be the duty of the city of Richmond to provide a
suitable court-room, jury-room and clerk’s office for said law and
equity court of the city of Richmond.

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