CHAP. 402.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2498 of the Code of
Virginia, as amended by an act approved March 16, 1901, in regard
to releases on the margin of record books by clerks of courts.

(H. B. 371.)
Approved March 21, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section twenty-four hundred and ninety-eight of the Code of
Virginia, as amended by an act approved March sixteenth,
nineteen hundred and one, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows:

Sec. 2498. When payment or satisfaction is made of a debt
secured by a mortgage, deed of trust, vendor’s or mechanic’s
lien, it shall be the duty of such lien creditor, unless he shall
have delivered a proper release deed, to cause such payment or
satisfaction to be entered on the margin of the page of the book
where such incumbrance is recorded; and for any failure to do
so, after five days’ notice, if the note, bond, or other evidence of
debt secured by said lien shall be left with the lien creditor, or
with the clerk, in whose office such incumbrance is recorded,
until the lien is released as provided by this section, shall for-
feit twenty dollars. Such entry of payment or satisfaction shall
be signed by the creditor or his duly authorized agent, attorney,
or attorney in fact, and the note, bond, or other evidence of debt
secured by such lien duly cancelled, shall be produced before
the clerk in whose office such incumbrance is recorded, or an
affidavit shall be filed by the said creditor, or his duly author-
ized agent or attorney, or attorney in fact, with such clerk, to
the effect that the debt therein secured and intended to be re-
leased or discharged has been paid to such creditor, his agent,
attorney, or attorney in fact, who was, when the said debt was
so satisfied, entitled and authorized to receive the same, and
that such note, bond or other evidence of debt has been cancelled
and delivered to the person by whom it was paid, or has been
lost or destroyed and cannot be produced as herein required;
and when so signed and the signature thereto attested by such
clerk, with a certificate that said note, bond or other evidence
of debt duly cancelled was produced before such clerk, or that
the affidavit hereinbefore required has been duly filed with such
clerk, the same shall operate as a release of the incumbrance as
to which such payment or satisfaction is entered, as fullv and
effectually as if the said marginal entry were a formal deed of
release duly executed and recorded.

Any person who owns or has any interest in real estate or
personal property on which such incumbrance exists may, after
twenty days’ notice thereof to the person entitled to such in-
cumbrance, apply to the county or corporation court of the
county or corporation in whose clerk’s office such incumbrance
is recorded, or to the chancery court of the city of Richmond, if
it be in the clerk’s office of the said court, to have the same re-
leased or discharged, and upen proof that it has been paid or
discharged, or upon its appearing to the court that more than
twenty years have elapsed since the maturity of the lien or in-
cumbrance, raising a presump‘ion of payment, and which is
not rebutted at the hearing, such court shall order the same to
be entered by the clerk on the margin of the page in the book
wherein the incumbrance is recorded, which entry, when so
made, shall operate as a release of such incumbrance, and the
clerk’s fee for so releasing on the margin of the page of the
book wherein the incumbrance or lien is recorded shall be fifty
cents, which shall be paid by the person or persons applving for
the release, unless otherwise provided in the said mortgage,
deed of trust, vendor’s or mechanic’s lien.

All releases heretofore made by any court under this section
upon such presumption of payment, so arising and not rebutted,
shall, after the lapse of one year from the passage of this act,
if no obiection be made during that time, be validated, a release
of a deed of trust, or a reconveyance of the property embraced
therein, may in all cases be made to the original grantor. whether
living or dead, and any release or reconveyance heretofore or
hereafter so made shall enure both in law and in equity to the
successors in title of such grantor.

2. All acts and parts of acts..so far as they are in conflict
with this act, are hereby repealed.