Chap. 323.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to amend
and re-enact section 2498 of the code of Virginia, as amended and re-enacted
by an act approved February 27, 1894, as amended and re-enacted by an act
approved February 29, 1896, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
February 28, 1898, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved March
3, 1898, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved January 17, 1900,
and as amended and re-enacted by an act approved March 5, 1900, in rela-
tion to deeds of trust and other incumbrances.

Approved February 16, 1901.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-four hundred and ninety-eight of the code of Virginia, as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved February twenty-seventh,
eighteen hundred and ninety-four, as amended and re-enacted by an act

approved February twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, as

anmentlod and re-enacted by an act approved February twenty eighth,
eighteen hundred and nincty-eight, and as amended and re- -enacted by
an act approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-cight, and as
amended and re-enacted by an act approved January seventeenth, nine-
teen hundred, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved March
fifth, nineteen hundred, in relation to deeds of trust and other incum-
brances, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2498. When payment or satisfaction is made of a debt secured by
mortgage, deed of trust, vendor’s or mechanic’s lien, it shall be the duty
of such lien creditor, unless he shall have delivered a proper release deed,
to cause such payment or satisfaction to be entered on the margin of the
page of the book where such ineumbrance is recorded: and for anv
failure to do so, after five days’ notice, if the note, bond or other evi-
dence of debt secured by said lien shall be left with the lien ereditor, or
with the clerk, in whose office such incumbrance is recorded, until the
lien is released as provided by this section, shall forfeit twenty dollars.
Such entry of payment or satisfaction shall be signed by the creditor or
his duly authorized agent, attorney or attorney in fact, and the note,
bond or other evidence of debt secured by such lien duly cancelled, shall
be produced before the clerk in whose office such incumbrance is re-
corded, or an affidavit shall be filed by the said creditor, or his duly au-
thorized agent or attorney, or attorney in fact, with such clerk, to the
effect that the debt therein secured and intended to be released or dis-
charged has been paid to such ereditor, his agent, attorney, or attorney
in fact. who was, when the said debt was so satisfied. entitled and au-
thorized to receive the same, and that such note, bond or other evidence
of debt has been cancelled and delivered to the person by whom it was
paid, or has been lost or destroved and cannot be produced as herein
required: and when so signed and the signature thereto attested by such
clerk, with a certificate that said note. bond or other evidence of debt
duly cancelled was produced before such clerk, or that the affidavit here-
inbefore required has been duly filed with such clerk, the same shall
operate as a release of the ineumbrance as to which such payment or sat-
isfaction is entered, as fully and effectually as if the said marginal
entry were a formal deed of release duly executed and recorded.

Any person who owns or has any intcrest in real estate or personal
property on which such incumbrance exists may, after twenty days’ notice
thereof to the person entitled to such incumbrance, apply to the county
or corporation court of the county cr corporation in whose clerk’s office
such incumbrance is recorded, or to the chancery court of the city of
Richmond, if it be in the clerk’s office of the said court, to have the same
released or discharged, and upon proof that it has been paid or dis-
charged, or upon its appearing to the court that more than twenty years
have elapsed since the maturity of the lien or incumbrance, raising a
presumption of payment, and which is not rebutted at the hearing, such
court shall order the same to be entered by the clerk on the margin of the
page in the book wherein the incumbrance is recorded, whicn entry,
when so made, shall operate as a release of such incumbrance, and the
clerk’s fee for so releasing on the margin of the page of the book wherein
the incumbrance or lien is recorded shall be fifty cents.

All releases heretofore made by any court under this section upon such
presumption of payment so arising and not rebutted, shall, after the
lapse of one year from the passage of this act, if no objection be made
during that time, be validated, a release of a deed of trust or a reconvey-
ance of the property embraced therein, may in all cases be made to the
original grantor, whether living or dead, and any release or reconveyance
heretofore or hereafter so made shall enure both in Jaw and in equity
to the successors in title of such grantor.

2. All acts and parts of acts, so far as they are in conflict with this
act, are hereby repealed.

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