Chap. 44.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4988 of the Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, relating to trial justices and their jurisdiction.

. [H. B. 58]
Approved September 11, 1933

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
forty-nine hundred and eighty-eight of the Code of Virginia, as here-
tofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 4988. (1) In counties having a population of six thousand
inhabitants or more, as shown by the last preceding United States
census, there may be appointed, and in counties having a population of
less than twenty thousand inhabitants and adjoining cities having a
population of not less than thirty thousand five hundred, and not more
than one hundred thousand inhabitants, as shown by the United States
census of nineteen hundred and twenty, there shall be appointed, by the
judge of the circuit court for such county, for a period of four years,
and every four years thereafter a trial justice for such county, who shall
be a resident of said county, or any town or city within the geographical
limits of said county. Any vacancy occurring in the office of trial
justices shall be filled by the judge of the circuit court of said county.

(2) The courts of the trial justices shall be opened for the trans-
action of business every day in the year, except Sundays and legal
holidays. The circuit court shall appoint a substitute trial justice, and
may at any time revoke such appointment, and shall make a new ap-
pointment in the event of such revocation, or in the event of the death,
absence or disability of such substitute trial justice. In the event of the
inability of the trial justice to perform the duties of his office by reason
of sickness, absence, vacation, interest in the claim, proceedings or
parties before his court, or otherwise such substitute trial justice shall
perform the duties of the office during such period of disability or in-
ability, and shall receive for his services a per diem compensation
equivalent to one-twenty-fifth of a monthly installment of the salary
of the trial justice, deductible from the salary of said trial justice, pay-
able as the salary of the said trial justice is paid.

(3) Before entering upon the performance of his duties, the trial
justice and the substitute trial justice shall take oaths required by law
and they shall enter into bond in the penalty of two thousand dollars,
each before the circuit court, or the clerk thereof, with surety, to be
approved by said court or clerk, and conditioned for the faithful per-
formance of their duties.

(4) Such trial justice shall receive a salary of not less than six
hundred dollars per annum, nor more than thirty-six hundred dollars
per annum, to be fixed by the judge of the circuit court of such county,
and to be approved by the board of supervisors of said county, to be paid
in monthly installments out of the treasury of the county and he shall
receive no other compensation for his services as trial justice. The
trial justice shall charge and collect all fees, which justices of the peace
for counties are authorized to charge and collect, and which have not
been paid in advance, and all fees collected by the said trial justice shall
be turned into the county treasury, excepting those fees belonging to
the issuing officers, as provided herein; provided, however, that in any
county in which there is an incorporated town. or towns, fines assessed
by the trial justice for violation of town ordinances shall be paid into
the treasury of the town whose ordinance was violated; and all fees
accruing to such trial justice, in the trial of warrants issued by the
mayor or police justice of any such town in his jurisdiction, for any
offense committed within the corporate limits of such town, shall also
be paid into the said town treasury.

The council, or other governing body, of any incorporated town in
any county having, or which may hereafter have, such trial justice, as is
provided herein, shall contribute to the salary of said trial justice in that
proportion which the assessed valuation of the tangible property assessed
for local taxation in such town, bears to the total assessed valuation of
such property, assessed for local taxation in the entire county, and pro-
vided, further, the provisions of this act giving jurisdiction to a trial
justice over incorporated towns in his county, and providing for said
towns to receive a part of his fees and contribute to his salary as afore-
said shall not be effective until and unless the same shall be first agreed
to by resolutions adopted by the council or councils of said town or
towns and the board of supervisors of the county in which the said
town or towns are located.

(5) Jurisdiction of such trial justice shall be as follows:

(a) The said trial justices shall be conservators of the peace within
the limits of their county or counties or corporations and shall have ex-
clusive original jurisdiction for the trial of all offenses against local
laws, ordinances and regulations of said county or ordinances of cities,
and incorporated towns for which they are appointed.

(b) The said trial justice shall have jurisdiction in all civil matters
now cognizable by justices of the peace for the county, and shall, in
addition thereto, have concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court in
all civil matters where the claim does not exceed the sum of three
hundred dollars (exclusive of interest), and shall have jurisdiction of
all matters and things mentioned in subsection five of section nineteen
hundred and fifty-three of the Code of Virginia, after appointment of
such trial justice. No other justice of the peace, mayor or juvenile
judge in said counties shall hereafter exercise such jurisdiction as is
herein conferred on said trial justices except as provided herein.

Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent justices of the
peace from issuing attachments, and warrants in civil and criminal cases
under general law.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, contained in this or any
other act or statute, in any county with a population of more than
fifty-eight thousand and having therein a city with a population of more
than twenty thousand according to the latest United States census, and
in which there is, adjacent to any such city, an area of not more than
five square miles which has a population of not less than six thousand
inhabitants, the judge of the circuit court of such county may, upon the
request of the board of supervisors, and by an order entered in the
common law order book of said court, designate and define the bounda-
ries of such area, and after the entry of such order, the justices of the
peace of the magisterial district in which said area is located shall,
within the limits of said area, have concurrent jurisdiction with the trial
justice of said county, in all civil and criminal matters cognizable by
justices of the peace under general law.

(c) The said trial justice shall also have jurisdiction to try and
decide attachment cases where the amount of the plaintiff’s claim does
not exceed the general jurisdiction of said trial justice and the pro-
ceedings on any such attachment shall conform to the provision of
chapter two hundred and sixty-nine of the Code of nineteen hundred
and nineteen; save when an attachment other than under section sixty-
four hundred and sixteen is returned executed, and the defendant has
not been served with a copy thereof, the said trial justice, upon affidavit
in conformity with section sixty-two hundred and sixty-nine of the Code
of nineteen hundred and nineteen, shall forthwith cause to be posted at
the front door of the courthouse a copy of said attachment, and shall
file a certificate of the fact with the papers in the case, and in addition
‘to the said posting the plaintiff, in the said attachment, or his attorney,
shall give to the trial justice the last known address or abode of the said
defendant, verified by affidavit and the said trial justice shall forthwith
mail a copy of the said attachment to the said defendant, at his or her
last known address, or place of abode; or, if said defendant be a
corporation, at its last known address, and the mailing of the said copy
as aforesaid shall be certified by the said trial justice in writing, and
such certificate shall be filed with the papers in the case, and after the
said copy of attachment has been so posted and mailed, as aforesaid, for
fifteen days, the said trial justice may proceed to try and decide the
said attachment.

(d) The trial justices shall have in criminal cases the same juris-
diction for their respective counties as is now or may hereafter be
vested by general law in the police justices of cities, but nothing in this
section shall be construed to interfere with or abridge the rights of the
justices of the peace and mayors to issue warrants and subpoenas in
criminal cases, or to grant bail in any case as now exists, and to receive
their fees therefor, but said warrants and subpoenas shall be returna-
ble. before said trial justices for action thereon. The said trial justice
shall have jurisdiction of all misdemeanors arising under the prohibi-
tion laws of the Commonwealth, with an appeal of right to the circuit
court as provided for by the general law with reference to appeals.

(6) The justice of the peace and mayors in all counties affected by
this section shall make returnable before said trial justices all processes
issued by them in criminal cases, and said trial justices shall sit at the
county seat of their respective counties, and such other places as may
be designated by the judge of the circuit court, for the hearing of all
cases which may be brought before him.

(7) All the provisions of law now in force, or which may be here-
after enacted governing preliminary examinations, granting of bail pro-
cedure, and appeals in both civil and criminal cases cognizable by justices
of the peace of counties not affected by this act shall apply in like man-
ner to cases tried before the trial justices appointed hereunder, unless
otherwise provided herein except that in all civil and criminal cases
triable before such trial justices, no removal to any other court shall be
allowed; nor shall an appeal be allowed in any civil case in which the
claim does not exceed the sum or value of twenty dollars exclusive of
interest.

(8) The board of supervisors shall provide suitable quarters for
trial purposes for the court of such trial justices at the county seat, or
at such other place or places as may be designated by the judge of the
circuit court, and shall provide necessary books, stationery and supplies
for said trial justices. Such books and supplies shall be kept by the
trial justices subject to the supervision of the circuit court in which said
trial justice presides.

(9) All papers connected with any of the proceedings in the trial
of cases before such trial justices shall be returned to the clerk’s office of
the circuit court of the county, within twelve months after final decision,
and shall be properly filed, indexed and preserved, by the clerk thereof,
who shall receive the same fees as are allowed for receiving, filing and
indexing papers returned by justices of the peace.

(10) Each trial justice shall keep a docket in which shall be entered
all cases tried and prosecuted before him and the final disposition of the
same, together with an account of costs and fines.

(11) The trial justices shall have power to make and enforce such
reasonable rules of practice as are not in conflict with law.

(12) Two counties having an aggregate population of not less than
ten thousand inhabitants, according to the last preceding United States
census, or the combination of an incorporated town or city within a
county may, in the discretion of the judge, or judges, having jurisdic-
tion over said counties be combined and one trial justice appointed for
the two counties by the said judge or judges, and the trial justice shall
be a resident of one of the said counties, or any town or city within the
geographical linuts of one of said counties, and in the event of the
combination of two or more counties, the salary of the trial justice shall
not be less than six hundred dollars per annum, nor more than thirty-
six hundred dollars per annum, to be paid by said counties in propor-
tion to their population by each of said counties, as provided in section
four of this act; and provided, further, that all cases arising in any one
of said counties, shall be tried and disposed of in the county of its
origin. In misdemeanor cases tried by the said trial justices the Com-
monwealth’s attorney shall receive no fee for his appearance except in
those particular violations of law in which the Commonwealth's at-
torney is required to appear by the laws of this Commonwealth and in
those cases he shall recetve such fees as are fixed by law.

(13) The circuit court or corporation court or the judge thereof in
vacation, is hereby authorized and empowered by order duly entered
from time to time, to adopt such reasonable rules and regulations as may
be deemed necessary to exercise general supervisory power over said
trial justice for the purpose of perfecting and enforcing any detail
matter not otherwise provided for herein, or by legislative enactment.

- All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Provided, however, that the provisions of this act shall not become
effective in any county, except counties having a population of less than
twenty thousand inhabitants and adjoining cities having a population of
not less than thirty thousand five hundred and not more than one
hundred thousand inhabitants, as shown by the United States census
of nineteen hundred and twenty, until it shall have been adopted by the
board. of supervisors for said county.

The provisions of this act shall not apply to counties adjacent to
cities having a population of one hundred thousand or more by the last
United States census, nor to counties of Franklin or Montgomery.

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

Chap. 45—An ACT to amend an act entitled “An act to provide a new charter
for the city of Portsmouth,” approved March 10, 1908, as heretofore amended,
1933] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 79

by adding thereto a new section numbered section 48-a, requiring the city col-
lector to apply payments of real estate and personal taxes to the oldest tax due;
making tax receipts issued on and after December 1, 1933, for any year con-
clusive evidence of the payment of all such prior taxes and a bar to the col-
lection of such prior taxes. [H. B. 59]

Approved September 11, 1933

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled “An act to provide a new charter for the city of Portsmouth,”
approved March tenth, nineteen hundred and eight, as heretofore
amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section numbered forty-
eight-a, which new section shall read as follows:

Section 48-a. The city collector in collecting taxes shall collect the
oldest tax first, and shall in no case issue his receipt for the current year
until all prior taxes are paid. The possession of a tax receipt issued
by the city collector shall be conclusive evidence that all prior taxes
which are chargeable against the lands in such receipt described, or in
case of a personalty tax, against the person named in such receipt, have
been fully paid and shall be a bar to the collection of any prior taxes
thereon, unless otherwise stated in the receipt. This section shall not
apply to any receipts issued on or before December thirty-first, nineteen
hundred and thirty-three.

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