Chap. 113.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections fifty-three hundred and
thirty-five and fifty-three hundred and forty of the Code of Virginia.

[S B 124]
Approved March 2, 1922.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections fifty-three hundred and thirty-five and fifty-three hundred
and forty of the Code of Virginia be amended and re-enacted so as
to read as follows: |

Section 5335. By whom bill may be filed for sale or encumbrance
of lands of such persons, or lands held in trust; what to state; how
verified ; who to be made defendants.—If{ the guardian of any infant
or the committee of any insane person, or the trustee or trustees of
any estate, or executors or administrators with the will or curator
annexed of any decedents will or any person interested in the subject
matter, whether he or they be interested with others or not, think
that the interest of the infant, insane persons or those for whom the
estate is held will be promoted by a sale or encumbrance of his or
their estate, in whole or in part, or by an exchange of his or their
estate for other real estate ; or by encumbering such real estate for the
purpose of borrowing money to pay debts, or to educate or support
infants or to preserve the estate or to be used to erect buildings or
other improvements on the same; or if such guardian, committee,
trustee or trustees, executor or executors, person or persons interested
in any estate in trust, think that the interest of such infant, insane
person or other person or persons for whom such estate is held, or
to whom such estate belongs, will be promoted by the sale thereof or
of the timber, coal, oil, gas and minerals on or in the real estate; or
by a lease of such real estate, or any part thereof, for a term of years;
or by a lease of the coal, oil, gas and minerals thereof, or of any or
either of them; such guardian, committee, trustee or trustees, execu-
tor, or beneficiary or beneficiaries, whether the estate of the infant,
insane person, or of any of the persons interested, be absolute or
limited, and whether there be or be not limited thereon any other
estate, vested or contingent, and whether the guardian, committee,
trustee or trustees, executor, or the infant, or insane person, or any
of the persons interested, reside in this State or not, may, for the
purpose of obtaining such sale, exchange, or encumbrance, or making
such lease, file a bill in equity or a petition in any pending suit in the
circuit court of the county or chancery, circuit or corporation court
of the corporation in which the estate proposed to be sold, exchanged,
encumbered or leased, or some part thereof, may be, stating plainly
all of the estate, real or personal, belonging to such infant or insane
or other person or so held in trust, and all the facts calculated to show
the propriety of the sale, exchange, encumbrance or lease, and where
the object is to encumber the estate, such other facts as are required
by section fifty-three hundred and forty.

The bill or petition shall be verified by the oath of the plaintiff.
The infant or insane person, or beneficiary or beneficiaries in such
trust, and the trustee or trustees or executors (when not plaintiff or
plaintiffs) and all others interested shall be made defendants; and
also, where there are one or more infant or insane defendants his or
their guardian or committee, as the case may be, and all those who
would be their heirs or distributees, if all of such infants or insane
defendants were dead.

Section 5340. When and for what decree for sale, lease, encum-
brance or exchange may be made; what the court may require before
and after decree is entered.—lf it ‘be clearly shown, independently of
any admissions in the answers, that the interest of the infant, insane
or other person in interest, or beneficiaries in the trust, as the case
may be, will be promoted, and the court is of opinion that the rights
of no person will be violated thereby, it may decree an encumbrance
or a sale of said estate or real estate, or any part thereof; or if it be
real estate, an exchange of the whole, or any part thereof, for other
real estate or a sale or exchange of timber, coal, oil, gas and minerals
thereot or any or either of them, or a lease of such real estate, or’

any part thereof, or a lease of the coal, oil, gas and minerals thereof,
or of any or either of them, for such term of years as the court may
deem proper, taking for the purchase money, in case of a sale on
credit, ample security, and if the sale be of real estate, retaining a lien
thereon ; or the court may decree that the real estate or any part there-
of may be encumbered for the purpose of borrowing money to pay
debts, or to educate or support infants, or to preserve the estate or
to be used to erect buildings or other improvements on said real estate
upon such terms and conditions as may appear proper.

In case of a lease on such real estate or a lease of the coal, oil, gas
and minerals thereof, or of any or either of them, the contract pro-
posed to be executed by such guardian, committee, executor, trustee
or trustees, shall, before being executed, be submitted to and approved
by the said circuit, chancery or corporation court. If the object
sought is to encumber the real estate to borrow money to be used
to erect buildings or other improvements thereon, or to pay off debts
against the estate, the kind of buildings or improvements to be erected
and the estimated cost thereof, or the debts to be paid off, and the
nature and the amount thereof, as the case may be, shall be specifically
set forth, either in the body of the bill or petition, or in exhibits filed
therewith; and the decree shall not authorize the borrowing of any
greater amount than may be necessary for such purpose, and shall so
provide that a report of the disbursement of the money so borrowed
be made to the court and become a part of the record in the cause.

Any exchange of lands decreed or ordered by court prior to March
fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, shall be valid as if such
exchange had been so decreed or ordered after said date.

2. An“emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage.