Chap. 211.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2716 of the Code of Virginia,
as amended and re-enacted by an act of the general assembly of Virginia,
approved December 12, 1903.

Approved March 15, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-seven hundred and sixteen of the Code of Virginia, as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved December twelfth, nineteen hundred
and three, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 2716. How person turned out or kept out of possession of land may
recover it; when proceeding to be in court and when it may be before a
justice.—If any forcible or unlawful entry be made upon lands, or if,
when the entry is lawful and peaceable, the tenant shall detain the pos-
session of land after his right has expired, without the consent of him
who is entitled to the possession, the party so turned out of possession,
no matter what right or title he had thereto, or the party against whom
such possession is unlawfully detained, may, within three years after
such forcible or unlawful entry, or such unlawful detainer, sue out of
the clerk’s office of the circuit court of the county, or the circuit or cor-
poration court of the corporation, in which the land, or some part there-
of, is, a summons against the defendant to answer the complaint of the
plaintiff that the defendant is in possession and unlawfully holds from
the plaintiff the premises in question (describing them), and no decla-
ration shall be required, or in any case where possession of any house,
land, or tenement is unlawfully detained by the tenant, or some person
claiming under him, the lease of such tenant being “originally for a
period not exceeding one year, or for the time such tenant is employed
by the landlord as laborer, the landlord or other person entitled to the
possession may present to any justice of the county, city, or town in
which said premises are situated, a statement, under oath, of the facts
which authorize the removal of the tenant or other person in possession
(describing said premises) ; and thereupon the said justice shall issue
his summons against the person or persons named in the said affidavit.