Chap. 139.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 459 of the Code of Virginia.
[S B 31]
Approved March 15, 1932

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
four hundred and fifty-nine of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 459. When not to issue grant; what grants to be void;
what lands, et cetera, to be under control of governor.—The said reg-
ister shall not issue any grant for land upon any survey heretofore
made and not yet carried into grant (other than an inclusive survey),
or made hereafter, unless there be indorsed on such survey an affi-
davit of the person applying for the grant, as well as that of the
surveyor making the survey, that they verily believe that the land
embraced in the survey has not been previously appropriated, or that
it was, at the time of the entry thereof, liable to entry, or that such
person has bona fide title or claim to such land, and desires by a new
grant to perfect or quiet his title or claim thereto; but upon making
the affidavit; in either of the forms aforesaid, the register may issue
a grant upon such survey, but no grant issued by the register, either
in consequence of any survey already made, or which may hereafter
be made, shall be valid or effectual in law to pass any estate or in-
terest in any lands unappropriated or belonging to the Common-
wealth, which embrace the old magazine at Westham, or any stone
quarry now worked by the State, or any lands which are within a
mile of said magazine, or any such quarry, or to pass any estate or
interest in lands which are a common under chapter one hundred and
thirty-nine, or to pass any estate, or interest in any natural oyster
bed, rock, or shoal, whether the said bed, rock, or shoal shall ebb
bare or not, or interest in any islands created in the navigable waters
of the State through the instrumentality of dredging operations con-
ducted by the United States between parallel or concentric lines fif-
teen hundred feet on either side of the channel axis, but every such
grant for any such lands, islands, bed, rock, or shoal shall be abso-
lutely void; provided, however, this act shall not be construed to af-
fect the title to grants issued prior to the passage of this act. The
said magazine and every such stone quarry and every such natural
oyster bed, rock, or shoal, and the lands of the Commonwealth adja-
cent to or in their neighborhood, shall be under the control of the
governor, who may make such regulations concerning the same as
he may deem best for the interests of the State. In all cases ex-
cepted in this section, when a grant has not been actually issued,
even though the party has paid the amount required for the warrant,
no grant shall be issued by the register of the land office, and comp-
troller is authorized and instructed, upon due application, to refund
to the party or parties the amount so paid.

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