Chap. 140.—An ACT to provide how a charter of a town granted by a court
may be annulled and repealed. [S B 167]

Approved March 4, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That when-
ever a petition signed by a majority of the voters qualified to vote at
the preceding November regular election, residing within the limits
of a town incorporated by a court, shall be presented to the circuit
court of the county in which such town is situated, setting forth the
metes and bounds of said town, and praying that the charter. thereof
may be annulled and repealed, and naming as defendants to said pe-
tition the board of supervisors of the county or counties in which
said town is located, accompanied with satisfactory proof that such
petition has been published in full in some newspaper published in
said county or counties once a week for four successive weeks, and
posted at the front door of the courthouse of the said county or coun-
ties for a similar period, and said court shall, after a hearing to be
had on a day fixed by the court, be satisfied that it will be to the
interest of a majority of the people of the said town, and that the
general good of the community will be promoted, such court shall,
by an order entered in its law order book, reciting the fact of the due
publication of the said petition, and that it is to the best interest of a
majority of the people of said town, and that the general good of
the community will be promoted by the annulment and repeal of the
charter, order that the charter of such town by name and style of
“The town of__.----------.---------- ,”’ (naming it) shall be and is
annulled and repealed.

2. When the court has fixed the day on which said petition shall
be heard, the court shall direct the clerk to cause to be summoned
the board of supervisors of the county or counties affected, who with-
out formal pleadings shall make such defense against the prayer of
said petition as they may have; and the court in its order may make
such dispostion by sale or otherwise of the corporate property of the
said town as may seem to it just and equitable. The court shall also
make such provision as to the payment of any debts or obligations
of the said town, as between the county or counties and the inhabitants
of the said town, as to the court may seem just and right.

3. Any one or more of the petitioners or the defendants or any
inhabitant of said town who may feel themselves or himself aggrieved
by an order repealing and annulling said charter, or by the refusal
to enter such order, may, at any time within sixty days from the date
of.said order, upon giving bond for costs, the amount thereof to be
fixed by the court, apply to the supreme court of appeals for a writ
of error and supersedeas according to the general law.