Chap. 187.—An ACT to make the city of Fredericksburg a part of the 15th judicial
circuit; to establish a circuit court for said city and prescribe the time for hold-
ing terms thereof; to make the judge of the 15th judicial circuit the judge of
the said circuit court; to prescribe the jurisdiction of said circuit court; to
transfer to said circuit all suits, actions, proceedings and matters pending in
the corporation court; to provide for the clerk and other officers of said circuit
court, and a Commonwealth’s attorney for said city; and to transfer to the
clerk’s office of said circuit court and make parts of the records therein, all
record books, papers and records of and in the clerk’s office of the corporation
court; and to provide when this act shall be in force. [HB 381]

Approved March 12, 1940

1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia as follows:

Section 1. The city of Fredericksburg is hereby made and declared
to be a part of the fifteenth judicial circuit, and there is hereby estab-
lished a circuit court for said city, under the designation of the circuit
court of the city of Fredericksburg, in which city there shall be held
each year, four terms of said circuit court, beginning on the third
Monday in February, May, August and November, but the judge of
said court may, from time to time change the day for the commence-
ment of such terms or any of them. The judge of the fifteenth judi-
cial circuit shall be the judge of the circuit court of the city of
Fredericksburg.

Section 2. There is hereby transferred to and vested in the circuit
court of the city of Fredericksburg, all jurisdiction and authority
heretofore vested by law in the corporation court of said city, of and
concerning all cases, matters and proceedings, both civil and criminal,
arising within said city, and said circuit court shall also have all such
jurisdiction and authority of and concerning all such cases, matters
and proceedings, both civil and criminal, arising within said city,
vested by law in circuit courts, which may not have been vested in
said corporation court, and shall also have concurrent jurisdiction
with the circuit courts of Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties, of and
over all criminal offenses committed within one mile of the corporate
limits of said city.

Section 3. The clerk of the corporation court, the Common-
wealth’s attorney, the city sergeant and other officers of the corpora-
tion court, elected or appointed, shall continue as officers of the circuit
court of Fredericksburg during the remainder of the terms for which
they were elected or appointed, and their successors shall be elected or
appointed as provided by the charter of said city and the laws of this
State. The sergeant of said city shall have authority to serve any and
all processes emanating from said circuit court, or the clerk’s office
thereof, with like effect as if they were served by a sheriff; and said
sergeant shall attend upon the terms of said circuit court, perform
similar services and duties as sheriffs attending circuit courts and have
the compensation provided by the laws of this State for his services.

- Section 4. All suits, actions, proceedings and matters, both of a
civil and criminal nature, pending in said corporation court, are hereby
transferred to the said circuit court and shall be treated and con-
sidered as pending therein, and the papers and records in all such
suits, actions, matters and proceedings in which final decrees, judg-
ments and orders have been made and entered by and in the said
corporation court, are hereby transferred to the clerk’s office of said
circuit court and shall become and be a part of the records therein,
and all books of whatever nature, in the clerk’s office of said corpora-
tion court, wherein are recorded, entered or docketed deeds, court
orders, judgments and other writings or proceedings of any nature
whatsoever, and all papers returned to and filed in said clerk’s office,
are hereby transferred to, and made records of the clerk’s office of
said circuit court, and all such deeds, judgments and other writings
shall be treated and considered as if they had been recorded, entered
or docketed in the clerk’s office of said circuit court, and all such
court orders shall be treated and considered as if they had been made
and entered by the said circuit court.

Section 5. All Acts and parts of Acts, inconsistent with this Act,
including Section twenty-nine hundred and thirteen of the Code of
Virginia, are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency, but
only insofar as the Circuit Court of the City of Fredericksburg is
concerned.

Section 6. Should the Federal census of nineteen hundred and
forty disclose that the City of Fredericksburg has population of ten
thousand or more, then the judge of the corporation court of said city,
shall enter an order setting out this fact, a certified copy of which shall
be transmitted by the Clerk of said Court to the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, who shall file and preserve the same in the records
of his office and shall report to the Governor at once the fact that such
city has a population of ten thousand or more, as disclosed by said
census, and that it has therefore become a city of the first class, of
which fact, the Governor, upon receiving such report, shall at once
make proclamation, copy of which shall be certified to the Clerk of
said corporation court, who shall endorse thereon the said date when
received and record same in the common law order book of said court.

An emergency existing, this act shall be in force and effect from the
date of the receipt of said proclamation by the clerk of the corporation
court.