Chap. 57.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 3340 and 3341 of the Code of
"Virginia so as to allow the contents of any paper which has been filed in any
county, circuit, or corporation court or in the clerk’s office to be proved before
@ commissioner; and to authorize the judges of circuit and corporation courts
to make such orders in vacation as may be necessary to secure to persons seek-
ing to prove the contents of any will, deed, or other paper which has been filed
in the clerk’s offices of said courts, or of the county courts, or recorded in a
book therein, and which is lost or illegible, the benefits thereof.

Approved March 8, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
hirty-threé hundred and forty and thirty-three hundred and forty-one
f the Code of Virginia be amended and re-enacted so as to read as fol-
OWS :

§ 3840. How contents of any book or paper which has been filed o1
ecorded in any circuit, corporation, or county court, or in the clerk’:
ffice thereof, may be proved before a commissioner.—Any person de
irous of proving the contents of any paper which has been filed or re
orded in any circuit, corporation, or county court, or of anything whicl
was of record in any. book thereof, or filed or of record in any clerk’s offic
»f such courts, or of record in any book in such clerk’s office, may fil
with a commissioner, to be appointed for this special purpose for eacl
sounty and corporation by. the circuit court of the county, or the circui
or corporation court of the corporation, or of the judege thereof in vaca
tion, a petition in writing, stating the nature of the paper or record, th
contents of which he desires to prove, and what persons may be affectes
by such proof. Whereupon the commissioner shall appoint a time an
place for proceeding on the said petition, whereof reasonable notice shal
be given to all parties named in said petition, or interested in the pro

ing, and to any others, who shall be known to the commissioner, o
who shall claim to be so interested. If any party interested be an infan
IMsane person, or married woman, the said commissioner shall appoint
guardian ad litem to attend to the case in behalf of such parties. If th
commissioner, appointed under this section, be interested in any case, th
judge may appoint a special commissioner to act in that particular cas
If any person who may be affected by the proof be an infant, the con
missioner shal] appoint a guardian ad litem to attend to the case on h
behalf.

§ 3341. How evidence of the witnesses taken; commissioner to keep
journal and return it and evidence to court or to the clerk’s office ; orde
to bé made by the court or by the judge thereof in vacation. —The sai
conmnissioner shall, at the instance of any person interested, take, ;
writing, the evidence of all witmesses who may be produced before hin
or whom he may think it necessary to examine. He shall keep a journ:
of his: proceedings in each case, which he shall return, with the eviden
taken by him, or filed before him, with such explanations and commen
as he may deem necessary, to the circuit court of the county or the ci
cuit or corporation court of the corporation, in which the book or pap
mentioned in the petition was, at its next term, or to the clerk’s office «
such circuit or corporation court, in vacation; and the court, or the
judge thereof in vacation, shall make such order in respect to the said
book or paper, or anything therein, as may be necessary to secure the
benefits thereof to the parties interested, or such other order.as may~be
proper in the case. The provisions of sections thirty-three hundred and
twenty-three and thirty-three hundred and twenty-five shall be apph-
cable to such reports.

Before the judge of such court shall make such order in vacation; the
petitioner shall cause to be served on the persons interested a notice: in
writing that he will apply for such order, in the manner provided by sec-
tion thirty-two hundred and seven, at least ten days before such order is
to be made in vacation ; but if such persons, or any of them, do not reside
in the county or corporation in which said order is to be entered, said
notice shall as to such non-resident persons be published for two suc-
cessive weeks In some newspaper to be named by the commissioner ‘and
posted! at the door of the place of sitting of said court, at least ten days
before such order is made in vacation. But the judge i in vacation shall
not have jurisdiction to have and determine causes under this section
unless he first during term enter an order consenting that matters arising
under this section may be submitted during vacation. The commis-
sioner, for his services under this and the last preceding section, shall be
allowed the same fees that are allowed to commissioners in chancery.

2. By reason of records having been burned and otherwise destroyed
an emergency exists, therefore this act shall be in force from its passage.