CHAP. 323.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 3211 of the Code of
Virginia, as amended, providing for recovery by motion after fifteer
days’ notice on contracts to recover money or to recover damages:
when notice to be returned to clerk’s office; provision to prevent discon.
tinuance of motion.

Approved March 14, 1912.

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

““Any person entitled to recover money by action on any c n-
tract, or to recover damages founded upon any contract, or for
the breach thereof, or to recover any statutory penalty may, on
motion before any court which would have jurisdiction in an ac-
tion otherwise than under section thirty-two hundred and fifteen,
obtain judgment for such money or damages after fifteen days’
notice, and for such statutory penalty after thirty days’ notice,
which notice shall be returned to the clerk’s office of such court
within five days after the service of the same, and after such
fifteen days’ notice or thirty days’ notice, as the case may be,
the motion shall be docketed. In the case of a motion for
judgment upon any contract upon which under the rules of
pleading an action of assumpsit would lie if the plaintiff shall
serve the defendant at the same time and in the same manner
as the notice is served with a copy certified by the clerk of the
court to which the notice is returnable, of the account on which
the motion is to be made, stating distinctly the several items of
his claim and the aggregate amount thereof, and the time from
which he claims interest thereon and the credits if any to which
the defendant may be entitled, and if the plaintiff file with his
notice an affidavit made by himself or his agent, stating therein
to the best of the affiant’s belief the amount of the plaintiff’s
claim, that such amount is justly due, and the time from which
the plaintiff claims interest, judgment shall be rendered by the
court in which the motion is made for the plaintiff for the
amount claimed in the affidavit filed with his notice unless the
defendant shall allege on oath of himself or his agent that the
plaintiff is not entitled, as the affiant verily believes, to recover
anything from the defendant on such claim, or state on such oath
a sum certain less than that set forth in the affidavit filed by the
plaintiff which, as the affiant verily believes, is all that the plain-
tiff is entitled to recover from the defendant on such claim. If
the defendant shall admit that the plaintiff is entitled to recover
from the defendant a sum certain less than that stated in the
affidavit filed by the plaintiff, judgment may be taken by the
plaintiff for the sum admitted to be due and the case be tried
as to the residue. A motion under this section which is docketed
under section thirty-three hundred and seventy-eight shall not
be discontinued by reason of no order of continuance being en-
tered in it from one day to another or from term to term. This
section shall not be construed as intended to affect the remedy by
motion given by the preceding section.”