Chap. 198.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3427 of the Code of Virginia
as heretofore amended.

Approved March 15, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty-four hundred and twenty-seven of the Code of Virginia, as here-
tofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 3427. How a motion, action at law, chancery cause, or any matter of
law, or fact arising therein, submitted for decision in vacation; how
order, judgment, or decree, certified and entered; effect thereof; how
causes shall be heard.—Any motion, action at law, or chancery cause,
pending in a circuit, or corporation court, or any matter of law, or fact,
arising in such motion, action at law, or chancery cause, may, by con-
sent of parties, either in person or by counsel, next friend or guardian
ad litem, in term time entered of record, or by like consent in vacation,
be submitted to the judge of said court for such decision and decree,
judgment, or order, therein in vacation as might be made in term (and
such court may, either in term or vacation, without such consent, when
it desires time to consider of its judgment as to any motion, action at
law, chancery cause, or matter of law, or fact arising therein, which has
been fully argued and submitted, direct such motion, action at law, chan-
cery cause, or matter of law, or fact, to be submitted for decision, and
decree, judgment, or order in vacation) : provided, that no such consent
shall be necessary as to any defendant against whom the cause, action,
or motion has been matured by order of publication, and who has not
appeared by motion, demurrer, plea, or answer. When such consent is
in vacation, the judge shall certify the fact to the clerk of the court in
which the motion, action at law, or chancery cause is pending, to be
entered in the law, or chancery order book, as the case may be. The
judge acting in vacation under this section, in addition to the other
powers herein given to him, shall have authority to do any and all
things, and to enter all judgments, decrees, or orders, in behalf of, or
at the request of, a party desiring to take an appeal, or to apply for a
writ of error, that the court might do, or enter, in term time. The
judge shall certify the judgments, orders and decrees made by him in
vacation to the clerk aforesaid, to be entered in like mamner as the
vacation consent. All judgments, orders, and decrees so made and
entered, shal] have the same force and effect as if made and entered
in term, except that in the case of a judgment, order, or decree for
money, the same shall be effective only from the time of day at which
it is received in the clerk’s office to be entered of record.

2. An emergency existing by reason of the confusion that may other-
wise result, this act shall be in force from its passage.