Chap. 176.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 2, as heretofore amended,

of an act entitled “An act to provide for the suspension of operator’s and

chauffeur’s licenses and registration certificates and the right of non-residents

to operate a motor vehicle, in certain cases, to prescribe procedures where

damages to property and/or injuries to persons have been caused by the

operation of motor vehicles, and to prescribe penalties’, approved March
24, 1932, relating to the suspension of operator’s and chauffeur’s licenses.

[H B 322]

Approved March 17, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
two, as heretofore amended, of an act entitled an act to provide for
the suspension of operator’s and chauffeur’s licenses and registration
certificates and the right of non-residents to operate a motor vehicle,
in certain cases, to prescribe procedure where damages to property
and/or injuries to persons have been caused by the operation of motor
vehicles, and to prescribe penalties, approved March twenty-fourth,
nineteen hundred and thirty-two, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows:

Section 2. (a) The operator’s or chauffeur’s license and all of
the motor vehicle registration certificates and motor vehicle licenses
of any persons shall in the event of his failure to satisfy any final
judgment or judgments rendered against him by any court of competent
jurisdiction in this or any other State, for damages on account of
personal injury, or damage to property, resulting from the ownership
or operation of a motor vehicle heretofore or hereafter by him or his
agent, be forthwith suspended by the Director of the Division of Motor
Vehicles upon receiving a certified copy of such final judgment or
judgments from the court in which the same is or are rendered, together
with a fee of two and one-half ($2.50) dollars to be paid by the judg-
ment creditor, and such licenses and registration certificates shall
remain so suspended while any such judgment remains unsatisfied and
subsisting, and it shall be the duty of the court in which any such
judgment is rendered, upon written request of such judgment creditor
and the furnishing of the residence and business address of the de-
fendant or defendants affected, and the payment by him into court or
to the clerk thereof of two and one-half ($2.50) dollars, to forward
immediately to the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles a
certified copy of such judgment, and the residence and business address
of such defendant or defendants affected, together with a fee of two
and one-half ($2.50) dollars and such fee so paid by such judgment
creditor shall be assessed by the court or clerk wherein such judgment
is rendered as a part of the costs of the suit to be collected from the
defendant. And the discharge in bankruptcy of such defendant shall
not, for purposes of this act, be a satisfaction of such judgment or
judgments. All fees accruing under the provisions of this section shall
be paid to and received by the director and by him forthwith paid into
the treasury, and shall be set aside as a special fund in the treasury
to be used to meet the necessary additional expenses incurred by the
Division of Motor Vehicles and the director thereof in the performance
of the duties required by this act.

If any other such judgment shall be thereafter obtained against such
person for any accident, such license and certificates shall again be and
remain suspended while any such judgment remains unsatisfied and
subsisting; provided, however, that, (1) when five thousand dollars
has been credited upon any judgment or judgments, rendered in excess
of that amount for personal injury to, or the death of, one person
as the result of any one accident, or (2) when subject to the limit of
five thousand dollars, for each person, the sum of ten thousand dollars
has been credited upon any judgment or judgments, rendered in excess
of that amount for personal injury to, or the death of, more than one
person as the result of any one accident, or (3) when one thousand
dollars has been credited upon any judgment or judgments, rendered
in excess of that amount for damages to property as the result of any
one accident, resulting from the ownership or operation of a motor
vehicle by such judgment debtor, then and in either such event, such
payment or payments shall be deemed a satisfaction of such judgment
or judgments for the purposes of this section only.

(b) If, after the expiration of one year from the date of rendi-
tion thereof any such final judgment shall remain unsatisfied, or if
payment, or payments shall not have been made thereon, as herein-
before provided, it shall be the duty of the Director of the Division
of Motor Vehicles, upon the application of the judgment debtor, to
review the case, after a hearing conducted either by the director
or by someone designated by the director for that purpose, at which
hearing all proper evidence offered shall be received, and if it shall
be determined after said hearing, that such debtor has made a bona
fide effort to satisfy such judgment or to pay the required amount or
amounts thereon, and has been unable to do so, the said director may
restore to such judgment debtor his registration certificates and re-
issue his operator’s or chauffeur’s license, provided he shall prove
his ability to respond in damages which may thereafter be adjudged
against him on account of accidents resulting from his ownership or
operation of a motor vehicle, to the amount of five thousand dollars
for personal injury to, or the death of, one person as the result of
one accident, and to the amount of ten thousand dollars for personal
injury to, or the death of, more than one person as the result of one
accident, and to the amount of one thousand dollars for damages to
property, as the result of one accident: and the filing by him with the
said director, of either an adequate lability insurance policy, or a
bond with surety to be approved by the director, shall be sufficient
proof of his ability to so respond in damages.

(c) If any such motor vehicle operator shall not be a resident
of this State, his right to operate any motor vehicle in this State shall
be withdrawn for so long as any final judgment rendered against
him for damages, including personal injury, or death, caused by the
operation of any motor vehicle, either within or without this State,
shall be unsatisfied and subsisting, or until he shall have made pay-
ment, or payments thereon, or given proof of his ability to respond
in damages, as hereinbefore provided for.

(d) From any action of the director in suspending any license,
or right to operate a motor vehicle, or registration certificate, or in
refusing to remove any such suspension, in accordance with the pro-
visions of this section, the person aggrieved thereby shall have an
appeal as of right, to any court of record having civil jurisdiction in
the city or county in which the accident occurred, or, if the accident
occurred without the State, then to any court of record having a civil
jurisdiction in the city or county in which such person resides, with
the right of appeal from such court to the Supreme Court of Appeals
of Virginia, both to the person so aggrieved and to the Commonwealth.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its pas-
sage.

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