Chap. 255.—An ACT to ratify and confirm an act entitled ‘An act. confirming to
John C. Olinger and these claiming under him the title to a certain tract of land
purchased at a tax sale,” approved January 7, 1882.

Approved February 9, 1898.

Whereas on the seventh day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-
two, the general assembly passed an act entitled “ An act confirming to
John C. “Olinger and those claiming under him the title to a certain
tract of land purchased at a tax sale;’’ and

Whereas the validity of said act has been questioned because it
was not passed by a recorded vote of a majority of all the members
elected to each house of the general assembly; and whereas all taxes up
to this time have been paid upon the said land, and large permanent
improvements made thereon by the owner: now, therefore, in confirma-
tion and ratification of said act,

1. Be it enacted by the ecneral assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled ‘‘An act confirming to John C. Olinger and those claiming
under him the title to a certain tract of land purchased at a tax sale, ”
which reads as follows:

‘(Whereas on the thirtieth day of January, seventeen hundred and
nincty-six, there was granted by the commonwealth of Virginia to Nathan
Fields, Nathaniel Tay lor and John Johnston a tract of land then lying
in the county of Lee, containing sixty-two thousand acres; and

‘Whereas forty-nine thousand and two hundred acres, part of the
said tract, was returned delinquent in the name of the heirs of Nathaniel
Taylor for the non-payment of taxes due thereon for the year eighteen
hundred and thirty-four, and the said tract having been duly adver-
tised according to law was offered for sale at public outcry for cash on
the twenty-first day of October, eighteen hundred and thirty-four, when
John CG. Olinger became the purchaser of forty-eight thousand and two
hundred acres, part thereof, paying therefor the taxes and damages due
and in arrears ‘thereon: Ww hereupon the said land was duly conveyed to
him by Alexander W. Mills, clerk of the county court of Lee county; and

‘‘ Whereas it is questioned whether said sale and conveyance vested
the title of the commonwealth in the said Olinger because of an alleged
forfeiture to the president and directors of the literary fund previous
thereto; and Canalo
“* Whereas the said John C. Olinger took possession of said land under
his conveyance from the said clerk, and had the same charged to him
on the commissioner’s books in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-
five, and has, by himself and those claiming under him, regularly paid
the taxes thereon from that date to the present; for the purpose of re-
moving any question about the title to the said tract of land so far as
the commonwealth of Virginia is concerned,”’

S$ 1. Beit enacted by the general assembly, That all the right, title
and interest in or to the tract of forty-eight thousand and two hun-
(lred acres of land conveyed by Alexander W. Mills, clerk of Lee
county court, to John C. Olinger that may have become vested in
the commonwealth, or in the president and directors of the literary
fund, by any forfeiture or delinquency, be, and the same is hereby,
granted and relinquished to the said John C. Olinger and his heirs, or
those claiming by, through or under him or them: provided, that this
act shall not affect existing legal rights of any person claiming adversely
to the said Olinger.

§ 2. This act shall be in force from its passage, be, and the same is
hereby, ratified and confirmed. And the aforesaid act shall have all the
force as if the vote thereon in each house of the general assembly had
been determined at the time the same was passed by ayes and nays, and
the names of the members voting for and against the same had been en-
tered in the journals of the said houses respectively, and the majority
of all the members elected to each of the said houses had voted therefor.

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