Chap. 351.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 191 of the Tax Code of
Virginia in relation to pawn-brokers. [H B 358]

Approved March 29, 1934

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
one hundred and ninety-one of the Tax Code of Virginia be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 191. A pawnbroker shall pay for the privilege of trans-
acting business, two hundred and fifty dollars.. Any person who
shall in any manner lend or advance money or other things for profit
on the pledge and possession of personal property, or other valuable
things, other than securities or written or printed evidences of indebted-
ness, or who deals in the purchasing of personal property or other
valuable thing on condition of selling the same back to the seller at
a stipulated price, shall be held to be a pawnbroker. Any person
acting as a pawnbroker without a license shall pay a fine of not less
than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars for each offense.

The hustings or corporation court of any city, and the circuit
court of any county, may from time to time, grant a license to any
citizen of the United States who shall produce satisfactory evidence
of his good character, to exercise or carry on the business of a pawn-
broker in his city or county, which license shall designate the build-
ing in which said person shall carry on said business; and no person
shall exercise or carry on the business of a pawnbroker without being
duly licensed by the hustings or corporation court of the city, or
circuit court of the county in which he may desire to carry on said
business, nor in any other building other than the one designated in
said license, except by consent of the court which granted the li-
cense, under penalty of fifty dollars for each day he shall exercise or
carry on said business without such license or in any other building
than the one so designated.

Every person so licensed, shall at the time of receiving such license
and before the same shall be operative, enter with two sufficient
sureties, into a joint and several recognizance to the Commonwealth
of Virginia in the penal sum of two thousand five hundred dollars,
conditioned for the due observance of all acts of the General As-
sembly of Virginia, which may be in force respecting pawnbrokers
at any time during the continuance of such license. If any person
shall be aggrieved by the misconduct of any such licensed pawn-
broker, and shall recover judgment against him therefor, such person
may, after the return unsatisfied, either in whole or part, of any
execution issued upon said judgment, maintain action in his own name
upon the bond of said pawnbroker in any court having jurisdiction
of the amount claimed; provided, such court shall upon the applica-
tion made for the purpose, grant such leave to prosecute.

Every pawnbroker shall at the time of each loan deliver to the
person pawning or pledging any goods, article, or thing, a memoran-
dum or note, signed by him or her, containing the substance of the
entry required to be made in his or her book by this section, except
as to the description of the person, and no charge shall be made or
received by any pawnbroker for any such entry, memorandum or note.

No pawnbroker shall sell any pawn or pledge until the same shall
have remained four months in his or her possession, unless by con-
sent in writing of the pawner, and all such sales shall be made at
public auction and not otherwise; and shall be made or conducted by
any duly licensed auctioneer.

Notice of every such sale shall be published for at least five days pre-
vious thereto, in one or more of the daily newspapers of general circula-
tion printed in such city. Those doing business in any county shall ad-
vertise as above in some newspaper, if any be published in said county,
and if no newspaper be published in such county, then in some news-
paper published in an adjoining county, and such notice shall specify
the time and place at which such sale is to take place, the name of
the auctioneer by whom the same is to be conducted, the kinds of
articles, and the number of the pawner’s ticket.

The surplus money, if any, arising from any such sale, after de-
ducting the amount of the loan, the interest then due on the same,
and the expenses of the advertisement and sale, shall be paid over
by the pawnbroker to the person who would be entitled to redeem the
pledge in case no such sale had taken place.

Any licensed pawnbroker who shall violate or neglect or refuse
to comply with any of the provisions of this section, except where
otherwise provided, shall, for every such offense, upon conviction be-
fore a court of competent jurisdiction, pay a fine of not more than
one hundred dollars.

No pawnbroker shall ask, demand, or receive a greater rate of
interest than ten per centum per month on a loan of twenty-five dollars
or less, or five per centum per month on a loan of more than twenty-
five dollars and less than one hundred dollars, or three per centum per
month on a loan of one hundred dollars or more, secured by a pledge
of tangible personal property. And no loan shall be divided for the
purpose of increasing the percentage to be paid the pawnbroker.

Police regulation—Every pawnbroker shall keep at his place of
business a book or books, in which shall be fairly written in English,
at the time of each loan or transaction in the course of his business
an accurate account of such loan or transaction, setting forth a de-
scription of the goods, articles, or thing pawned or pledged, or re-
ceived on account of money loaned thereon; the time of receiving the
same; the amount of money loaned thereon at the time of pledging
same, the rate of interest to be paid on such loan, and the name
and residence of the person pawning or pledging the said goods, ar-
ticle, or thing, together with a particular description of such person,
including complexion, color of eyes and hair, and his or her height
and general appearance, the terms and conditions of loan, including
the period for which any such loan may be made, and all other facts
and circumstances respecting such loan.

Such book shall at all reasonablé times be opened to inspection
of the judges of the criminal court, the chief of police, and captains
and sergeants of the police of the city, town or county wherein such
business is being conducted, or any or either of them, sergeant and
sheriff of such city, town or county, or other officer with police juris-
diction. No property of any kind received on deposit or pledge by
any pawnbroker shall be disfigured or its identity destroyed or af-
fected in any manner whatsoever, so long as it continues in pawn or in
the possession of such pawnbroker, nor shall such property be in any
manner concealed for the space of ferty-eight hours after the same
shall have been received by such pawnbroker.

It shall be the duty of every pawnbroker and of every person in
the employ of such pawnbroker to admit to his premises at any time
any officer mentioned in this section to examine any pledge or pawn,
book or other record on the premises, as well as the articles pledged,
and to search for and take into possession any article known by him
to be missing, or known or believed by him to have been stolen, with-
out the formality of writ of search warrant, or any other process,
which search or seizure is hereby authorized.

The following regulation is hereby made for storing or taking care
to prevent injury during disuse on blankets, clothing, carpets, furs,
rugs, dress goods, cloths, mirrors, oil paintings, glass and chinaware,
pianos, organs, curtains, beddings and upholstered furniture. Pawn-
brokers shall be allowed to charge two per centum per month in addi-
tion to the regular charges for the first three months, or part thereof,
while such goods shall remain as pledge for money advanced.

Every pawnbroker shall be liable to all the penalties hereinafter
provided for violation of any of the provisions of this section, whether
such violations be committed by himself or by his agent, clerk, or
employee. Every person who shall be convicted of violating any of
the provisions of this section shall, for the first offense, forfeit and
pay a penalty, except in cases where a different penalty is herein pro-
vided, not exceeding twenty-five dollars, and for a subsequent offense
shall pay such penalty as the court may impose, and shall in the
discretion of the court, forfeit his license.

Every license issued under this section shall expire on the thirty-
first day of December of each year. No license issued under this

section shall be pro-rated.