CHAP. 75.—An ACT to facilitate the development of the resources of the
State by providing ways of ingress and egress for mining, manu-
facturing and timber cutting, and to authorize proper passways, tram-
roads, haulroads and other means of transportation over the lands of
another or others.

Approved March 4, 1912.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
whenever a person, firm or corporation, engaged or proposing
to engage in mining, manufacturing, hauling or delivering any
minerals, oils, timber, lumber wood, bark or other forest pro-
duct, desires to use such passways, tram-roads, haul-roads or
other means of transportation as may be needed for those pur-
poses, or any of them, and has no means of ingress or egress to
or from the lands whereon such person, firm or corporation is
conducting or proposes to conduct such mining, manufacturing,
hauling or delivering, except over the lands of another, and
such person, firm or corporation, cannot agree with the owner
or owners of such land as to the location of or the amount of
damages to be paid for the land proposed to be taken for the
purposes aforesaid, the circuit court of the county wherein the
said lands or any part thereof, are located, or the judge of said
court, in vacation, upon not less than ten days’ notice being given
to the owner or owners of such lands, and to any tenant of the
freehold therein, of the filing of such application shall, upon the
written application of any such person, firm or corporation,
setting forth and describing the lands proposed to be taken and
the purposes for which the same is to be used, forthwith issue a
warrant to five (5) disinterested freeholders of said county, who
are appointed commissioners for that purpose, any three (3)
of whom may act, requiring them to meet upon said lands at a
date to be fixed in said warrant, not less than ten days from the
date thereof of which meeting at least five days’ notice shall be
given to the said owners and tenants of the freehold.

A copy of said warrant shall, upon its issuance, be forthwith
served upon the owners and tenants of the said land, and if any
of them be a non-resident, then upon his agent or attorney, if he
have one, and if not, then by publication of the said notice for
four successive weeks in some newspaper published in the county
in which the said land or some part thereof is situated. If no
newspaper be published in said county, then the same shall be
published in a newspaper published in an adjoining county.

The said commissioners, after being first duly sworn, shall,
on the day named in said warrant, proceed to meet on said lands
and locate and lay out so much land as may be needed and suit-
able for the purposes for which the same is to be used, and cause
a plat to be made showing the metes and bound thereof, which
plat shall be filed with their report, and shall ascertain what will
be a proper compensation to the owner or tenant therefor or for
his interest: or estate therein, and what damages, if any, will be
suffered by any other person owning lands adjacent thereto by
reason of the taking or use of said land for the purposes afore-
said; and the said commissioners, in discharge of their duties,
shall comply in all respects with the provisions of the act con-
cerning the exercise of the power of eminent domain, approved
January eighteenth, nineteen hundred and four, and appearing
as section eleven hundred and five f of the Code of Virginia, and
all acts amendatory thereof, so far as the same are applicable and
not in conflict herewith, and shall forthwith make return of their
said report, with the certificate of the officer administering the
oath required herein attached thereto, to the clerk of the said
court.

2. Immediately upon the filing of the report of said com-
missioners and the adoption of the-said court or the judge
thereof in vacation, of the route to be taken and the amount to be
paid therefor, the applicant shall, upon the payment to the
person entitled thereto of the damages ascertained therein, have
the right to occupy and use the lands described in said report for
the purposes of establishing such passways, tramways, haul-
roads, or other means of transportation as are specified and
set out in the application pursuant to which the said report
was made, the same to be used for the purposes aforesaid.

But either the said applicant or owner of the land proposed
to ‘be used, or other person entitled to compensation under pro-
vision of this act may, at the term of said court at which said
report is filed, or at the next term thereafter, make such defense
or objection thereto, as may be made under similar circum-
stances by the owners of the lands so to be condemned under
the provisions of the act hereinbefore referred to concerning the
exercise of the power of eminent domain; upon the trial of which
the court, or the judge thereof in vacation may, after having
such evidence as may be introduced adopt the report of said
commissioners, or in its discretion, may adopt such other location
of the land so to be taken as shall appear from the evidence to
be more fesasible for the purposes aforesaid, looking to the in-
terest of the parties, and may award such damages as it may
deem just and proper under the evidence introduced, and an
appeal of right shall lie from the judgment of the said circuit
court to the supreme court of appeals of Virginia.
3. But nothing in this act shall operate to give any person,
firm or corporation, a right to the exclusive use of such lands,
passways, tramroads, haul-roads or other means of transporta-
tion; and the public shall have the right to use the said land for
travel as other public roads are used, and any other person,
firm or corporation shall have an equal right to use the said
passways, tramroads, haul-roads or other means of transporta-
tion upon paying proper compensation therefor. If no agree-
ment can be made for such compensation, then the amount
thereof shall be fixed by the circuit court of said county upon
the petition of the person, firm or corporation desiring to use
the same, and upon the payment of the amount so fixed by said
| he shall have the right to the use thereof as herein pro-
vide

Provided, further, that if said land shall cease to be used
for the period of five years for the purposes of hauling or de-
livering minerals, oils, timber, lumber, wood, bark, or other
forest product in the manner hereinbefore provided, the same
shall be deemed to have been abandoned and the right and title
thereto shall revert to the owner of the residue of the tract.

Provided, that the provisions of this act shall not apply in
any case where the general road law of the State or special road
laws of the counties apply.