Chap. 384.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2685 of the Code of Virginia,
relating to settlement of disputed boundary lines between counties. [S B 285]

Approved March 28, 1932
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-six hundred and eighty-five of the Code of Virginia be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2685. Whenever a doubt shall exist or dispute arise as to
the true boundary line between any two counties in this State, it shall
be lawful for the circuit courts of the respective counties, whose
boundary is thus in doubt or dispute, each to appoint not less than three
nor more than five commissioners, who shall be resident freeholders of
their respective counties (a majority of those appointed for each county
being necessary to act), who shall meet and proceed to ascertain and
establish the true line. But the said commissioners, before proceeding
to ascertain such boundary, shall employ a competent surveyor and
chain-carriers to run the same, and shall, with the best evidence which
they can procure, direct their surveyor where to run said line and shail
have him mark the same. After said boundary line shall have been run
and marked, said commissioners shall require said surveyor to make
two plats of the courses and distances of the said line, and to note
thereon particularly such places of notoriety or objects of prominence
through or by which it passes, as in the opinion of the commissioners
will best designate the line. Said commissioners shall return said
plats respectively to the respective courts by which they were appointed,
together with their report of the performance of their duties in ascer-
taining and establishing said line, which report shall fully describe
said line, and said courts, after inspecting such report and ascertaining
whether the same meet the requirements of this section, shall, if such
report meet said requirements and if it be unanimous, approve the
same and direct it, together with the plat, be recorded in the deed books
of their respective clerk’s offices and indexed in the name of each
county; and in all controversies thereafter touching the location of said
line the said reports and plats shall be taken as conclusive evidence.
The circuit court of each county shall allow a reasonable compensation
to the commissioners of such counties respectively, and to the surveyor
and chain-carriers, to be paid out of the county levies of the counties
respectively.

If, in any case heretofore or hereafter arising, the commissioners
shall fail to agree upon the location of such line, they shall so report
to the circuit courts of their respective counties, stating in their reports
the points and grounds of disagreement, and describing fully the con-
flicting lines. Thereupon either of said counties, upon petition filed in
its own name in the circuit court of either county, or at rules in the
clerk’s office thereof, shall have the right to have ascertained and
established, by a court constituted as hereinafter provided, the true
boundary line so in doubt or dispute. Such petition shall describe, with
reasonable certainty, the location contended for, and shall state the
grounds of such contention. A plat, showing the location contended
for, filed with the petition, may serve the purposes of such description.
The petitioner shall make the other of said counties the party de-
fendant, and the case shall be commenced by serving a copy of the
petition upon the Commonwealth’s attorney of said county. No formal
plea or answer to said petition shall be necessary, but the defendant
shall state its grounds of defense in writing, if any it has, describing,
with the same degree of certainty required of the petitioner, the line as
contended for by the defendant, and the said counties shall be deemed
to be at issue, which issue shall be the true location of the boundary
line so in doubt or dispute. The case shall be heard and decided by a
court, without a jury, held and presided over by three judges as fol-
lows: the judge of the circuit court of the petitioning county, the judge
of the circuit court of the defendant county, and a judge of some circuit
court in this State remote from said counties, to be designated by the
governor ; and when both said counties are within the same circuit, the
governor shall designate a third judge from an adjoining circuit. Such
court shall hear the case upon the evidence introduced in the manner
in which evidence is introduced in common law cases, and shall ascer-
tain and establish the true boundary line by a majority decision, and
shall give judgment accordingly, and costs shall be awarded as the
court shall determine. The judgment of the court shall be recorded in
the common law order book and in the current deed book of the court,
and indexed in the names of the said counties, and, unless reversed,
shall forever settle, determine, designate and establish the true boundary
line. An appeal may be granted by the supreme court of appeals, or
any justice thereof, to either party from the judgment of the court,
and the costs of such appeal shall be awarded to the party substantially
prevailing.

2. Anemergency existing this act shall be in force from its passage.