Chap. 90.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 4987-f of the Code of
_ Virginia, relating to the jurisdiction of trial justices. ! [H B 139]

Approved March 10, 1938

1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
forty-nine hundred and eight-seven-f of the Code of Virginia, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 4987-f. Jurisdiction——The jurisdiction of such trial jus-
tice shall be as follows:

(1) The trial justice shall be a conservator of the peace within
the limits of the territory for which he is appointed. For the purpose
of this section the term “territory for which he is appointed” shall mean
the county or counties, including towns therein, and any city or cities
for which he is appointed trial justice.

(2) The trial justice shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of
all offenses against the ordinances, laws and by-laws of the respective
counties, cities and towns for which he is appointed and of all mis-
demeanors, except offenses of which jurisdiction is specifically vested
in the State Corporation Commission, arising under laws of the Com-
monwealth. There shall be an appeal of right to the circuit court
of the county or the corporation court of the city as provided for by
the general law with reference to appeals from justices of the peace.
There shall also be an appeal of right to the circuit court of the
county or corporation court of the city from any order or judgment
of a trial justice forfeiting any recognizance or revoking any suspension
of sentence formerly entered by such trial justice. Notwithstanding
the provisions of this sub-section, the circuit court of any county or
the corporation court of any city shall have jurisdiction to try any
person for any misdemeanor for which such person shall be indicted,
or may certify such indictment to the trial justice for trial in which
latter case, the indictment shall be in leu of any warrant, petition, or
other pleading constituting the charge which might otherwise have been
required by law. The trial justice shall also have power to conduct
preliminary examinations of persons charged with crime in the manner
prescribed for justices of the peace by chapter one hundred and ninety-
two of the Code. Trial justice shall have the power to accept fines and
costs within ten days if any defendant decides to withdraw an appeal
which has been noted.

(3) The trial justice shall have, within the limits of the territory
for which he is appointed, exclusive original jurisdiction of any claim
to specific personal property or to any debt, fine, or other money, or
to damages for breach of contract or for any injury done to property,
real and personal, or for any injury to the person, which would be
recoverable by action at law or suit in equity, when the amount of
such claim does not exceed the sum of two hundred dollars, and con-
current jurisdiction with the circuit court of the county or the city
court or courts of general jurisdiction, as the case may be, of any
such claim when the amount thereof exceeds two hundred dollars but
does not exceed one thousand dollars; but when the amount of the
claim exceeds the sum of three hundred dollars the trial justice shall,
at any time within ten days after the return date of the process, pro-
vided judgment has not been rendered, but not thereafter, upon the
application of the defendant and the filing by him of an affidavit of
himself, his agent or attorney that he has a substantial defense to the
plaintiff's claim, and upon the payment by him of the costs accrued
to the time of removal, remove the case and all the papers thereof, to
the circuit court of the county or to the court of general jurisdiction
of the city, wherein the action was brought. The plaintiff shall, within
thirty days from the date of such removal, pay to the clerk of the
court to which the case has been removed the amount of the writ tax
as fixed by law, and four dollars on account of costs in said court,
and in the event of his failure so to do, the case shall stand dismissed.
On the trial of the case upon removal, the proceedings shall conform
to the proceedings under section six thousand and forty-six of the Code
of Virginia as now or hereafter amended. For the purpose of this
section the term “amount of claim” shall include any attorney’s fee
contracted for in any instrument sued on, but shall exclude interest
and costs in all cases. The trial justice shall also have jurisdiction
of actions of unlawful detainer or entry in cases provided by section
fifty-four hundred and forty-five.

(4) Any civil action, within the jurisdiction conferred upon the
trial justice, may be brought in any county or city wherein the cause
of action, or any part thereof, arose, although neither the defendant nor
any one of the defendants reside therein, by warrant or notice of motion
returnable before the trial justice thereof: any such warrant or notice
of motion may be directed to a constable, sheriff or sergeant of any
county or city wherein the defendant resides or may be found; but
no such warrant or notice of motion shall be served or executed in
any other county or city than that wherein the action is brought, unless
it be (a) an action against a corporation, (b) an action upon a bond
taken by an officer under authority of some statute, (c) an action
to recover damages for a wrong, or (d) an action against two or more
defendants on one of whom such warrant or notice of motion has
been executed in the county or city in which the action is brought, or
(e) unless it be otherwise specifically provided.

(5) The trial justice shall also have power to issue and jurisdiction
to try and decide attachments where the amount of the plaintiff’s claim
does not exceed one thousand dollars, and the proceedings on any
such attachment shall conform to the provisions of chapter two hun-
dred and sixty-nine of the Code of Virginia as now or hereafter
amended, except that 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 trial justice, upon affidavit
in conformity with section six thousand and sixty-nine and six thousand
and seventy of this Code, shall forthwith cause to be posted at the
front door of the court house of the county a copy of the said attach-
ment and shall file a certificate of the fact with the papers in the case,
and, in addition to the said posting, an order of publication shall be
awarded and published in accordance with the provisions of sections
six thousand and sixty-nine and six thousand and seventy of the Code
of Virginia. After said copy of the attachment has been so posted and
published as aforesaid, the trial justice may proceed to try and decide
the said attachment.

(6) The trial justice shall have power to issue the summons
provided for by section sixty-five hundred and three, when the fieri
facias upon any final judgment heretofore or hereafter rendered was
issued by him. In such case such trial justice shall have all of the
powers and authority, respecting interrogatories, conferred by chapter
two hundred and seventy-two of this Code upon any court or judge
mentioned therein. The commissioner before whom any person is
required to appear by such summons, issued by any such trial justice,
shall have the same powers and authority as if such summons had been
issued by the clerk under section sixty-five hundred and three. All
interrogatories, answers, reports and other proceedings under such
summons, and also all money, evidence of debt and other security in
the hands of an officer, which are directed by any section of said
chapter two hundred and seventy-two, to be returned or delivered to
such court or judge, or to the clerk’s office of such court, shall when
the said summons was issued by such trial justice, be returned or
delivered in like manner to said trial justice. From any order made
in such proceedings by a trial justice which involves the disposition
of any money or property exceeding the sum of fifty dollars in value,
exclusive of interest, there shall be an appeal in the same manner
and upon the same conditions as in the case of appeals allowed from
judgments rendered by the trial justice in civil cases.

Except as herein otherwise specifically provided, all statutes here-
tofore enacted, except section forty-eight hundred and sixteen of the
Code, conferring any power, authority, or jurisdiction upon justices
ot the peace in any civil action or proceeding, shall apply in like manner
to trial justices appointed hereunder.

(7) The trial justice shall, within his general jurisdiction within
the territory for which he is appointed, have power to issue warrants,
summons and subpoenas, including subpoenas doces tecum, in civil
and criminal cases, to be returnable before him.

No justice of the peace or mayor shall, within any county or in any
incorporated town located therein, or in any city, for which a trial
justice is appointed, exercise any civil or criminal jurisdiction herein
conterred on such trial justice. Justices of the peace within their
respective counties and mayors or other trial officers, within their re-
spective territorial jurisdictions shall, however, have the same power
to issue attachments, warrants and subpoenas within the jurisdiction
of the trial justice as is conferred upon the trial justice, and they shall
also have power to grant bail in any case in which they are now author-
izecd| by general law to grant bail and to receive their fees therefor, but
said attachments, warrants and subpoenas shall be returnable before
the trial justice for action thereon.

(8) Except as herein otherwise specifically provided, all the pro-
visions of law now in force or which may hereafter be enacted govern-
ing granting of bail, procedure and appeals in criminal cases, relating
to police justices in cities shall apply in like manner: to trial justices
appointed hereunder, and all provisions of law now in force or which
may hereafter be enacted governing procedure, removal and appeals
in civil cases relating to civil and police justices and civil justices in
cities, shall apply in like manner to trial justices appointed hereunder ;
except that in each county removals and appeals shall be to the circuit
court of the county. No appeal shall lie, however, in any civil case
from a trial justice’s court where the amount in controversy does not
exceed the amount of twenty dollars, exclusive of interest and costs.

(9) The said trial justice shall have the same powers in matters
of contempt as are conferred on courts and judges by the general law,
but in no case shall the fine exceed twenty-five dollars and imprison-
ment exceed ten days for the same contempt. From any such fine or
sentence an appeal shall be allowed as appeals are allowed from such
trial justice in civil cases, and the proceedings in such appeal shall
conform in all other respects to the provisions of section forty-five
hundred and twenty-three.

(10) The trial justice shall have authority to take affidavits and
administer oaths and affirmations in all matters and proceedings, and
shall have power to issue all appropriate orders or writs, including the
power to appoint guardians ad litem in all proper cases in aid of the
jurisdiction conferred upon him, but he shall have no authority to
take depositions or to take acknowledgments to deeds or other writings
for purposes of recordation.

(11) The trial justice shall also have and exercise, concurrently
with justices of the peace, the jurisdiction now or hereafter conferred
by general law upon justices of the peace in all matters in connection
with the adjudication and commitment of insane, epileptic, feeble-
minded, and inebriate persons, and the institution and conduct of pro-
ceedings therefor.

(12) Notwithstanding other provisions of sections forty-nine
hundred and eighty-seven-a to forty-nine hundred and eighty-seven-o,
both inclusive, to the contrary, any city and any incorporated town
within the jurisdiction of any trial justice appointed pursuant to the
said sections may, by a resolution adopted by a majority of the mem-
bers of the council thereof, continue in the mayor or other trial officer
thereof all jurisdiction now vested in such mayor or other trial officer
pertaining to the issuance of warrants and the summoning of witnesses
and the trial of cases involving violations of city and town ordinances,
in which event the said mayor or other trial officer shall collect all fees
and fines provided for and pay the same into the treasury of the
respective city or town as now provided by law or by ordinances of
his said city or town.
(13) Nothing contained herein shall be so construed as to affect
the jurisdiction of the mayor or other trial officer of any city unless
a ‘trial justice is appointed for such city in accordance with the pro-
visions of section forty-nine hundred and eighty-seven-c.