Chap. 708. amend and re-enact section 3429 of the code, so as to
require a record to be kept of money under control of courts; the manner in
which taxes shall be assessed and paid thereon; proceedings of courts when
money has remained under its control for seven years without any known owner
or claimants.

Approved March 3, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
three thousand four hundred and twenty-nine of the code of Virginia be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 3429. Whenever any court shall order any money under its control
or in its custody to be deposited in any bank or banking institution, the
officer or person making such deposit shall deliver the certificate of de-
posit to the clerk of the court in which such order was entered. Such
clerk shall file such certificate in the papers of the suit or proceedings in
which such order was made, and shall, in a book kept for that purpose,
keep a record of such money, showing the style of such suit, or other
proceedings, the date of the order of such deposit, the amount of such
deposit, the place of such deposit, and the court in which such order
was entered; and he shall from time to time, as decrees are drawn on
said fund, charge the same against said deposits. He shall also furnish
the auditor of public accounts, on February first of each year, with a
copy of such record thus made by him, showing the balance on hand
February first; and the said auditor shall keep a record of same in a book
kept by him for that purpose. The said clerk shall also furnish a like
list of such balances to the examiner of record, who shall examine same,
and if found correct he shall report same to the commissioner of revenue
of his county or city, who, if they be not otherwise taxed, shall enter
the same upon his property book and assess the proper tax thereon,
which shall be paid by such bank or banking institution to the treasurer
of such county or city, upon the presentation of the proper tax bill there-
for, and the amount so paid shall be credited against such deposit.
Whenever any money shall have remained for five years in the custody
or under the control of any court of this commonwealth, without any
owner or claimant thereof known to the court claiming such funds, such
court shall, where the amount is twenty-five dollars or upwards, or the
court may, in its discretion, where the amount is under twenty-five dol-
lars, of its own motion, or upon application of the attorney for the com-
monwealth or the auditor of public accounts, whether such money be
deposited in bank or be otherwise under the control of such court, cause
a publication to be made once a week for four successive weeks, in some
newspaper printed in the city of Richmond, and, unless the court be a
court held in the said city, also in some other convenient newspaper
printed in the state, setting forth the amount of such money, the source
from which it was derived, in what court and in what suit or proceed-
ing it is held, and in whose hands it is, and requiring all persons having
any claim to the said money to appear ‘before the court within such time,
after the completion of the publication as the court may prescribe, and
establish their claim: provided, that when the aggregate amount of such
sums, less than twenty-five dollars, be five hundred dollars or more,
then said court shall cause a joint publication of the same, to be made
in the manner herein provided.

2. This act shall be in force from July first, eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight.