Chap. 81.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 437 of the Code of
Virginia as heretofore amended. [S B 43]

Approved September 9, 1919.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section four hundred and thirty-seven of the Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows:
Sec. 437. When and how assessors appointed to assess lands
and lots. It shall be the duty of the circuit courts of the coun-
ties and cities of the second class having no corporation court,
and of the corporation or hustings courts of the cities, or of the
judges of said courts in vacation, on or before the first day of
January in the year nineteen hundred and twenty, and every
fifth year thereafter, to appoint proper persons to assess the
value of all lands and lots, together with the improvements
thereon, within their respective jurisdictions; provided, that
there shall be but one assessor for each corporation, except the
cities of Richmond and Norfolk, where there shall be three; and
except further, that all cities having a population of fifteen
thousand may have two assessors, and for each county there
shall be as many assessors as there are commissioners of the
revenue. Every person appointed an assessor- shall be a resi-
dent of the county or corporation and district for which he is
appointed. In those counties in which two or more assessors
are to be appointed, the court or the judge thereof in vacation,
shall appoint one for each district in which there is a commis-
sioner of the revenue, and if at any time the court, or the judge
in vacation shall be satisfied that any assessor appointed under
this act will not, or that from any cause he cannot, perform the
duties devolved on him within the time prescribed, the court, or
the judge in vacation, may wholly supersede him and appoint
another in his place, or may appoint one or more assistants to
aid him in his duties, as shall be deemed most expedient; but
before any person thus appointed shall enter upon the duties
of his office he shall take the oath prescribed by the Constitu-
tion and execute the bond prescribed by section four hundred
and thirty-eight. But this section shall not apply to the assess-
ment of railway or canal corporations, or of coal or other min-
eral lands, the assessment of which is otherwise provided for
by law.

Any action taken under the provisions of this act by a judge
in vacation shall be certified by the judge to the clerk of the
court, who shall enter the certificate of the judge in the book of
his office in which Commonwealth’s orders are entered.