Chap. 231.—An ACT to establish an additional court for the city of Norfolk and
to define its jurisdiction.

Approved February 12, 1894.

Whereas the city of Norfolk, Virginia, now contains more than
thirty thousand inhabitants, and it is desirable and proper that
there should be established for the said city a court of probate and
record, separate and apart from the corporation court of the said city,
and that there should be elected an additional judge to hold said
court and perform such other duties as shall be prescribed by law:
now, therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That from
and after the first day of January, in the year eighteen hundred and
ninety-five, there shall be in said city of Norfolk a court of probate
and record, separate and apart from the corporation court of said
city, to be called and known as the “court of law and chancery of
the city of Norfolk,” and there shall be an additional judge, with
like qualifications and to be elected in the same manner and for the
same term as the judge of the corporation court of the said city, to
hold the said court and perform such other duties as shall be pre-
scribed by law. |
2. That the said court of law and chancery shall have concurrent
jurisdiction with the circuit court and the corporation court of the
said city of Norfolk in all matters concerning the probate and re-
cordation of wills, the appointment, qualifications and removal of
fiduciaries and the settlement of their accounts, and in granting
and hearing writs of mandamus, prohibition and quo warranto, or
information in the nature of quo warranto, and original and general
jurisdiction, concurrent with the circuit court and exclusive of the
corporation court in said city, of all suits and proceedings in chan-
cery and of all such civil cases at law, within said city, as are
cognizable by the circuit court of the city of Norfolk, including
motions to recover money, and excepting actions of forcible or un-
lawful entry and detainer, and appeals from justices.

And the said court, or the judge thereof in vacation, shall have the
same power to award injunetions and writs of habeas corpus, and to
admit to bail, as are now or may hereafter be conferred upon the cir-
cult courts in this commonwealth, or the judges thereof respectively.

And any duty devolved or power or jurisdiction conferred, or which
may hereafter be devolved or conferred by law on the circuit courts
of this commonwealth, or the judges thereof respectively, shall,
unless otherwise expressly provided, be deemed to be also devolved
or conferred on the said court of law and chancery of the city of
Norfolk, or the judge thereof respectively, except as to matters of
which the corporation court of the said city shall have exclusive
jurisdiction.

3. But the said court of law and chancery shall have no jurisdic-
tion of the following matters, which shall remain as heretofore in the
corporation court of the said city:

Presentments, indictments and informations for offences, actions
and proceedings to enforce the payment of fines and penalties,
except those conferred by law exclusively upon the police justice of
said city or justices of the peace; appeals allowed by any state law
or ordinance of said city from the courts of justices of the peace and
police justice, both in civil and criminal matters; causes removable
from said justices, including distress warrants and attachments for
rent; proceedings for the condemnation of land or other property;
questions, powers and duties arising out of the laws for the assess-
ment and collection of taxes; suits, questions, powers and duties
arising out of the local option laws and the laws regulating the
license and sale of ardent spirits; questions, powers, duties and pro-
ceedings arising out of the election laws and contested elections;
the docketing of judgments and the recordation, in the mode pre-
scribed by law, of deeds and other papers authorized or required by
law to be recorded; actions of forcible or unlawful entry and de-
tainer, and the granting and amending of charters of incorpora-
tion.

And the said corporation court, and the judge thereof in vacation,
shall retain all the powers and jurisdiction possessed by the corpora-
tion court of the city of Norfolk, and discharge all the duties de-
volving upon the said corporation court of the city of Norfolk on
the day before the first day of January, in the year eighteen hundred
and ninety-five, except such as are herein expressly conferred upon
the court of law and chancery.

4. There shall be a term of the said court of law and chancery
held for each month in the year, except that the judge may omit the
term to be held for the month of August. The said term shall begin
on the third Monday in each month, and the first term thereof shall
be held on the third Monday in January, eighteen hundred and
ninety-five.

The said terms shall continue so long as the business of the court
may require, and shall be for the trial of all causes, both at law and
in chancery, but the chancery docket shall be called before the law
docket at the terms to be held in February, April, June, October and
December.

The rules for the said court shall be the same as are now or may
hereafter be prescribed for the circuit courts of this commonwealth.

5. Appeals, writs of error and supersedeas from and to judg-
ments, decrees and orders of the said court of law and chancery of
the city of Norfolk aud the judge thereof shall be taken and allowed
as from and to judgments, decrees and orders of a circuit court or
circuit judge.

6. All causes at law and in chancery pending in the corporation
court of the city of Norfolk on the first day of January, eighteen
hundred and ninety-five, of which the said court has no jurisdic-
tion under this act, shall be removed to said court of law and
chancery of the city of Norfolk, and the clerk of the corporation
court of the said city of Norfolk is hereby directed to deliver to
the clerk of the said court of law and chancery of the said city,
on the said first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-
five, or as soon thereafter as may be, the original papers, complete,
of all such causes at law and in chancery so removed, with copies
of all rules and orders made, not found in the said original papers,
and a statement of the costs incurred by each party therein, and
shall enter on the proper order books of the said corporation court
of the said city the disposition made of the said causes, and the
clerk of the said court of law and chancery is hereby directed
to receive and file in the office of his said court the papers so re-
moved, and the said causes shall stand in all respects as they
stood in the said corporation court of the said city, and like pro-
ceedings shall be had and process issued as if said causes had been
originally commenced in the said court of law and chancery of the
said city of Norfolk. The costs of such removal shall be borne
equally by both parties to the said suits.

In all causes removed to the court of law and chancery under this
act the said court of law and chancery shall execute and enforce by
proper process and in the manner provided by law every judgment,
decree or order entered therein prior to the said first day of January,
eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and shall supervise, correct and
enforce in like manner any rules taken, or order, entry or endorse-
meut made by the clerk or any return made by the sergeant of the
said corporation court of the said city of Norfolk before the said
first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-five.
The papers in all cases at law or in chancery pending in the su
preme court of appeals on the first day of January, eighteen hundrec
and ninety-five, wherein writs of error or appeals have been taken o:
allowed to or from judgments, orders or decrees of the said corpora
tion court of the city of Norfolk, shall be removed to the said court
of law and chancery in the manner hereinbefore provided for the re.
moval of causes pending in the said corporation court of the saic
city, and all judgments, decrees and orders of the said supreme
court of appeals in any such causes rendered after the said first day
of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, or which though ren.
dered before shall not have been certified prior to the said first day
of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, shall be entered in the
said court of law and chancery of the city of Norfolk as though
such writs of errors or appeals had been taken or allowed to or from
judgments, decrees or orders of the said court of law and chancery,
and such proceedings shall then be taken in any such cause as if it
had been originally brought in the said court of law and chancery.

The said corporation court of the city of Norfolk shall execute and
enforce by proper process and in the manner provided by law every
judgment, decree or order entered in the said court prior to the first
dav of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, in all causes not
removed under this act to the said court of law and chancery: pro-
vided that in any cause in which there has heen a final judgment or
decree, or which has abated by death of parties or for other cause,
any party entitled to have the said cause revived, reviewed or re-
heard, may have the said cause, though ended or abated, removed, as
in the manner hereinbefore provided as to pending causes, to the said
court of law and chancery, and therein proceeded in as a pending
cause under this act.

7. The court of law and chancery shall have five commissioners in
chancery, to be appointed by the judge of said court, one of whom
shall be designated as the commissioner of accounts for said court.

5. The sergeant of the city of Norfolk shall be the officer to attend
on the said court of law and chancery and to execute its process and
orders.

9. All the provisions of law now in force, or hereafter to be enacted,
relating to juries in civil cases, applicable to the circuit courts in
this commonwealth, shall apply to the said court of law and chancery
of the city of Norfolk; and all provisions of law now in force, or
hereinafter enacted, relating to courts, judges or other officers of
courts, shall apply to the said court of law and chancery whenever
applicable as if the said court of law and chancery were specially
named therein; and any provisions which apply in terms to the cor-
poration or circuit courts shall also apply to the said court of law
and chancery as if it were specially named therein, whenever neces-
Bary or proper to enable it to exercise the powers and jurisdiction
herein conferred, or when relating to matters whereof the said court
is given jurisdiction.

10. During the absence of the judge of the said court of law and
chancery or of the said corporation court of the said city of Norfolk,
or the inability of either from any cause to hold a term of his court,
or to sit during the whole term, or to sit in any particular case or to
discharge any official duty required by law, the said term or any
part thereof may be held, or the said case be heard or tried and de-
cided, or the said duty may be discharged, if it be the judge of the
said court of law and chancery of the said city of Norfolk, by any
circuit or corporation judge, and if it be the judge of the cor-
poration court of said city of Norfolk, by any circuit or corporation
judge or the judge of the said court of law and chancery: provided,
however, that no extra compensation shall be allowed therefor when
either of the judges of the said court of law and chancery and cor-
poration court of the said city of Norfolk shall sit or discharge duties
for the other.

11. The clerk of the corporation court of the said city shall also
be the clerk of the court of law and chancery.

He shall qualify as now provided by law and give bond for the
faithful discharge of his duties in both courts; and if he qualify
before a judge in vacation, the bond shall be certified to the corpora-
tion court and the court of law and chancery, to be recorded in both
courts.

It shall be his duty as the clerk of the corporation court to forth-
with docket, in the manner provided by law, all judgments, decrees
or orders for the payment of money rendered in the said court of law
and chancery, or the clerk’s office thereof, or by the judge thereof in
vacation.

12. The salary of the jndge of the court of law and chancery shall
be three thousand dollars, of which sum twenty hundred dollars
shall be paid out of the treasury of the state, and ten hundred dol-
lars by the city of Norfolk.

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