Chap. 50.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
and 14 of chapter five of an act approved March 13, 1918, entitled “An
act to amend and re-enact all acts creating and amending the charter
of the city of Lynchburg.” [H B 35]

Approved March 21, 1928.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen and
fourteen of chapter five of an act approved March thirteenth,
nineteen hundred and eighteen, entitled “An act to amend and
re-enact all acts creating and amending the charter of the city of
Lynchburg” be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

7. The city council shall, in the year nineteen hundred and
nineteen, and each fourth year thereafter, elect an officer, who
shall be called judge of the municipal court of said city, whose
term of office shall begin on the first day of January succeeding
his election and shall continue for four years thereafter; his
salary shall be fixed by the council and paid out of the city
treasury and shall not be diminished during his term of office.

8 That said judge shall have all the powers and duties a
justice of the peace has in both civil and criminal matters (and
such other powers as may be conferred upon him by law) and
in addition to such powers and duties, it shall be his duty, and
he shall have jurisdiction, to enforce the penal laws of the State
and city and the ordinances and resolutions of the council, and
he shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all offenses of
whatever nature against the ordinances of the city; his jurisdic-
tion shall extend throughout the corporate limits of the city and
In criminal matters for one mile beyond those limits, except that
the same shall not extend into the county of Amherst beyond the
corporate line. In enforcing such laws, ordinances and resolu-
tions he shall have power to enforce and collect all fines and
penalties and to inflict and impose such other punishment as by
said laws, ordinances or resolutions are ordained as a penalty
for any breach thereof.

9. An appeal may be taken to the corporation court from
a judgment of the said judge in imposing any fine or penalties
for a violation of the penal laws of the State in all cases where
an appeal might be taken from a decision of a justice of the
peace. From his judgment imposing a penalty for any infrac-
tion of a city ordinance an appeal may be taken to the corpora-
tion court of the city except in cases where the penalty imposed
is a fine not exceeding twenty dollars, in which case it shall be
final.

10. The said court and the judge thereof shall have the
power to enforce the payment of any fine or penalty imposed by
the said court for any violation of a city ordinance or resolution,
or of any State law, by imprisonment in the city jail, or by
committing any person convicted by said court to the city farm.

11. In civil suits the jurisdiction of said judge within the
corporate limits shall be that of a justice of the peace, and when
the matter in controversy does not exceed twenty dollars, his
judgment shall be final.

12. Said judge shall hold a court each day (except Sunday,
and such days as he may set apart for the trial of juvenile and
domestic relations cases, when he is sitting as judge of such
court), to take cognizance of such cases as may be brought be-
fore him under the laws of the State or the ordinances of the
city.

13. In the case of absence from the city or inability to act
on the part of such judge, the council may designate some person
to act in his place, who when acting shall possess the same
powers and discharge the same duties as such judge, and at
all times shall have the same powers to issue warrants and ad-
mit to bail. :

14. Any vacancies in the office of said judge may be filled
by election by the council. The person thus elected shall serve
for the unexpired term and until his successor shall be elected
and qualified.
The present police justice of said city shall be the judge of
said municipal court until the expiration of the term for which
he was eelcted and until his successor shall be elected and
qualified, unless sooner removed from office.