Chap. 358.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 2044, 2051, 2055, and 2058
of the Code of Virginia.

Approved December 10, 1903.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
twenty hundred and forty-four, twenty hundred and fifty-one, twenty
hundred and fifty-five, and twenty hundred and fifty-eight of the Code of
Virginia be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2044. Right of distress therefor; officer’s return.—If any such ani-
mals be found running at large on any land mentioned in the preceding
section, the owner or tenant of such land or his agent may furnish in
writing, verified by affidavit, a statement of the number of each kind of
such animals, their natural and artificial marks, and the number of days
they have so trespassed, to any constable or sheriff of the county There-
upon such officer shall distrain said animals, and return said statement,
with his proceedings thereon, to the next term of the circuit court of
his county.

§ 2051. Court may declare a stream of water or canal a lawful fence;
proceeding therefor.—The circuit court of any county, upon a petition
of any proprietor or tenant of lands on any stream of water
or canal, may, in its discretion, declare and establish the same,
or any part of either within the limits and jurisdietion ef the
county, a lawful fence as to any of the stock named in see-
tion twenty hundred and forty-two. Notice of the application
shall be given by posting a copy of the petition at the front
door of the courthouse and two or more public places at or near the stream
or canal, the part thereof to which the petition applies, for thirty days,
and by publishing the same once a week for four successive weeks in a
newspaper, if one is published in the county. At or before the trial of
the cause, any person interested may enter himself a defendant thereto.
and the same shall thereafter be proceeded in as other causes.

§ 2055. How its value determined.—The value of such fence, and
the proportion thereof to be paid by such person, and the proportion
of the division fence to be built by him, in case of his inclosing his
land, shall be determined, in case the parties cannot agree, by
three persons, to be agreed upon by them; and if they cannot so agree, by
three disinterested persons, to be appointed by the circuit court, on mo-
tion of either party, after reasonable notice to the other.

§ 2058. To be in writing and recorded.—The decision made under
either of the three preceding sections shall be reduced to writing and con-
tain a description of the fence to be built or kept in repair, or both,
and of the proportion to be maintained by each party, which decision shal]
be forthwith filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the
county, and be recorded in a book to be kept by him for the purpose.

2. This act shall take effect on the first dav of February. nineteen hun-
dred and four.