Chap. 323.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 1398, 1402, 1403, and 1404 of
the Code of Virginia, so as to enable religious congregations, churches, and their
trustees to take and hold personal estate.

Approved March 28, 1902.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
thirteen hundred and ninety-eight, fourteen hundred and two, fourteen
hundred and three, and fourteen hundred and four be amended and re-
enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 1398. What conveyances, and so forth, for religious purposes valid.—
Every conveyance, devise, or dedication shall be valid which, since the
first day of January, seventeen hundred and seventy-seven, has been
made, and every conveyance shall be valid which hereafter shall be made
of land for the use or benefit of any religious congregation as a place for
public worship, or as a burial place, or a residence for a minister, or for
the use or benefit of any church, or religious society, as a residence for
a bishop or other minister or clergyman who, though not in special
charge of a congregation, is yet an officer of such church or religious
society, and employed under its authority and about its business; and
the land shall be held for such use or benefit and for such purpose, and
not otherwise. And no gift, grant, or bequest hereafter made to such
church or religious congregation, or the trustees thereof, shall fail or be
declared void for insufficient designation of the beneficiaries in, or the
objects of, any trust annexed to such gift, grant, or bequest in any case
where lawful trustees of such church or congregation are in existence,
or said congregation is capable of securing the appointment of such trus-
tees upon application as prescribed in section thirteen hundred and
ninety-nine; but such gift, grant, or bequest shall be valid, subject to
the limitation of section fourteen hundred and three: provided, that
whenever the objects of any such trust shall be undefined, or so uncer-
tain as not to admit of specific enforcement by the chancery courts of
the Commonwealth, then said gift, grant, or bequest shall enure and
pass to the trustees of the beneficiary congregation, to be by them held,
managed, and the principal or income appropriated for the religious and
benevolent uses of said congregation, as said trustees may determine,
by and with the approval of the vestry, board of deacons, board of
stewards, or other authorities which, under the rules or usage of said
church or congregation, have charge of the administration of the tempo-
ralities thereof.

§ 1402. Suits by and against trustees—The said trustees, and such as
are mentioned in section fourteen hundred and nine, may, in their own
names, sue for and recover any real or personal estate held by them
respectively in trust, or damages for injury thereto, and be sued in rela-
tion to the same. Such suit, notwithstanding the death of any of the
said trustees, or the appointment of others, shall proceed in the names
of the trustees by or against whom it was instituted.

§ 1403. Quantity of real and personal estate they may hold.—Such
trustees shall not take or hold at any one time more than two acres of
land in a city or town, nor more than seventy-five acres out of a city or
town ; and they shall not take or hold at any one time money, securities,
or other personal estate exceeding in the aggregate, exclusive of the books
and furniture aforesaid, the sum of thirty thousand dollars.

8 1404. Suits by members against trustees to compel proper apptica-
tion of property——Any one or more members of any religious congrega-
tion may, in his or their names, on behalf of such congregation, com-
mence and prosecute a suit in equity against any such trustee to compel
him to apply such real or personal estate for the use or benefit of the
congregation, as his duty shall require. No member of the congregation
need be made a defendant to such suit, but, in other respects, the same
shall be proceeded in, heard, and determined as other suits in equity,
except that it may be proceeded in, notwithstanding the death of the
plaintiff, as if he were still living.

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