Chap. 264.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 5873 of the Code, relating to a
special court of appeals, and to repeal section 5876 of the Code. [H B 252}

Approved March 15, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion fifty-eight hundred and seventy-three of the Code of Virginia be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 5873. Special court of appeals; when and how formed; and
where held.—A special court of appeals is hereby provided to hear and
determine the following cases:

(a) Cases involving the constitutionality of a law as being repug-
nant to the Constitution of this State, or of the United States, where the
supreme court of appeals is so situated on a rehearing of the case that a
full court cannot be secured on account of any one or more of the judges
of said court being unable, unwilling, or disqualified to sit;

(b) Cases in which a majority of the judges of the supreme court of
appeals are so situated as to make it improper for them to sit.

(c) Cases on the docket of the supreme court of appeals which
cannot be disposed of with convenient dispatch.

When the conditions set forth in clauses (a), (b), or (c), of this act
occur, the fact shall be entered of record.

The cases to be heard by the special court of appeals shall be such as
the supreme court of appeals shall from time to time designate by an
order entered on its order book.

To hear cases under paragraph (a), the court shall be composed of
such of the judges of the supreme court of appeals as can sit, and so
many Judges of the circuit courts and city courts of record in cities of the
first class, or of the judges of either of said courts, as will make the
number five. To hear cases under paragraphs (b) and (c) above, the
court shall be composed of not less than three nor more than five of the
judges of the circuit courts and city courts of record in cities of the first
class, or of the judges of either of said courts, or of any of the judges of
said courts. The judges of the circuit and city courts who are to sit on
the special court of appeals shall be designated and appointed by the
supreme court of appeals, by an order entered on its order book and
shall receive as compensation for their services ten dollars per day dur-
ing the term of such court, for mileage and expenses to be paid out of the
public treasury. The special court of appeals shall hold its sessions at
Richmond, Staunton, or Wytheville, and the officers of the supreme
court of appeals shall be the officers of the special court of appeals, and
discharge like duties and receive the like compensation as in the supreme
court of appeals. But the special court of appeals, under paragraph (c)
above, shall not sit at any time while the supreme court of appeals is in
session at the same place. The supreme court of appeals shall designate
the time and place of the first session of said special court, and there-
after the latter court shall determine the time and place of other sessions
of its court and the time of adjournment thereof. The said special
court shall keep a record of all its proceedings, judgments or decrees,
which shall be filed in the clerk’s office of the supreme court of appeals.
The records in the cases in said special court shall be printed under the
laws now in force, or which may be hereafter enacted for printing said
records for the supreme court of appeals, and, except as herein provided,
all laws applicable to the supreme court of appeals shall be applicable to
the said special court of appeals. The special court of appeals, created
by this act, shall cease to exist when it shall have completely disposed of
all cases designated, as aforesaid, by the supreme court of appeals, pro-
vided that in no event shall such special court continue after the first
day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, but a special court of
appeals to ‘mect. the emergency mentioned in section eighty-eight of the
Constitution, or to try cases on the docket of the supreme court of
appeals in respect to which a majority of the judges are so situated as to
make it improper for them to sit, may at any time be created by the
supreme court of appeals in the manner provided by the Constitution.
The special court of appeals shall not have power to grant or refuse
writs of error or appeals in any case. |

The supreme court of appeals shall cause to be reported and published
by its reporter such of the decisions of.said special court of appeals as it
may deem of sufficient public importance.

If a majority of the judges composing the special court of appeals
shall for any reason be unable to sit in any case designated by the
supreme court of appeals to be heard by said special court, the latter
court shall, by order, remand the same to the supreme court of appeals.

If from any cause any of the judges of said special court of appeals
shall be unable to sit, the supreme court of appeals shall designate some
other judge or judges of the class mentioned in section eighty-nine of the
Constitution to take his or their place.

2. Section fifty-eight hundred and seventy-six of the Code is hereby
repealed.