Chap. 269.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 6 of an act entitled ‘‘An act tc
provide for the supervision, regulation and control of the production, processing
transportation, storage, distribution, and sale of milk and cream; to create a
Milk Commission and local milk boards and to define and provide for the func-
tions, duties and powers thereof: to provide for the appointment, suspension.
removal, compensation, costs, and expenses of such commission and boards and
the members, officers, agents and employees thereof; to provide for licensing
processors, bottlers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers of milk and cream,
or either; to provide for the raising of funds for the administration of this act
and to provide for the disposition of revenue collected hereunder and to impose
penalties for violations of the provisions of this act,” approved March 29, 1934,
so as to provide for appeals to certain courts of the Commonwealth from the
orders and decisions of the Milk Commission in certain cases, and to prescribe
the procedure therefor and the incidents thereof. [S B 249]

Approved March 27, 1940

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That
ion six of an act entitled ‘An act to provide for the supervision,
ilation and control of the production, processing, transportation,
‘age, distribution, and sale of milk and cream; to create a Milk
nmission and local milk boards and to define and provide for the
ctions, duties and powers thereof; to provide for the appointment,
ension, removal, compensation, costs, and expenses of such
mission and boards and the members, officers, agents and em-
7ees thereof; to provide for licensing processors, bottlers, whole-
rs, distributors, and retailers of milk and cream, or either; to
vide for the raising of funds for the administration of this act and
rovide for the disposition of revenue collected hereunder and to
ose penalties for violations of the provisions of this act,’ ap-
ved March twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and thirty-four, be
nded and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

section 6. Appeals provided in certain cases and the procedure
incidents thereof prescribed.

a) Any person or persons aggrieved by an order of the commis-
sion refusing a license, to re-issue or revoke or suspend a license, to a
Jistributor or producer-distributor, or to transfer a license from one
person to another, and any other order of the commission applying
only to a person or persons, and not otherwise specifically provided
for, may be reviewed upon appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Any person or persons aggrieved by an order of the commission
fixing, revising or amending the price at or the terms upon which
milk may be bought or sold, or by any other general action, rule,
regulation or order of the commission, may, within forty (40) days
after the effective date of such action, rule, regulation or order, appeal
therefrom to the circuit court of the city of Richmond. No such
appeal shall, in either case, act as a supersedeas except on a special
order of the court allowing a supersedeas. An application for such
supersedeas shall only be heard after reasonable notice to the com-
mission, and the order allowing the same shall require cf the appellant
a bond with sufficient surety in such sum as shall be fixed by the court
for the protection of all parties interested in the action or order
appealed from.

(b) A special order of court permitting an appeal to act as a
supersedeas may be made only after reasonable notice to the com-
mission, and shall provide that the appellant file a bond, with sufficient
surety, in such sum as shall be determined by the court to be necessary
for the protection of producers and others during the pendency of
the appeal.

(c) The appeals provided by this section to the circuit court of
the city of Richmond from actions of the commission shall be by
petition against the commission as defendant, alleging therein in
detail the action or order complained of, the objections thereto and
specifying the relief asked and upon the filing of the petition for
appeal the clerk of the court shall issue a summons returnable within
thirty days.

On or before the return date of such summons, the commission
may file its plea, demurrer or answer to the allegations contained
therein. Upon filing of its pleadings by the commission the cause
shall be matured for hearing in court without further pleadings, and,
upon application of either party, the cause shall be placed at the head
of the docket and heard forthwith.

(d) The commission shall, on or before the return day of such
summons, certify to and file, in the court wherein such appeal is
instituted, the record of the proceedings to which the petition refers
Such record shall include the testimony taken therein, the findings o!
fact of the commission, a copy of all orders made by the commissior
pertaining to the proceedings, and a copy of the order, action 01
decision of the commission which the petition calls upon the court
to review.

(e) Mere technical irregularities in the procedure of the com
mission shall not be the basis of the decision of the court. In ar
appeal from an order or decision of the commission, the case shal
be heard upon the record certified to the court by the commission
Additional testimony shall not be taken before the court, except te
clarify the record or to introduce evidence as to the effect of the order
upon the business of parties to the record below, or of producers
standing in the same position as producer parties of record, but the
court may, in proper cases, remand the record to the commission for
the taking of such further testimony as was not available upon the
hearing appealed from, or such other testimony as the court shall
provide may be taken. No part of the record, containing verbal or
documentary evidence, shall be disregarded by courts because of
technical rules of evidence.

(f) Upon the filing of the appeal in the circuit court of the city
of Richmond, an order may be entered on the chancery side, summon-
ing the commission to appear on a day fixed therein to demur, plead
or answer to the allegations of the petition, and on said return day,
the cause shall be matured and set for hearing at the head of the
docket. Upon the hearing, the court shall determine whether the
order appealed is within the discretion vested in the commission by
law, and if so, whether the commission has exercised a reasonable
discretion or the order is unreasonable and capricious. If the com-
mission is found to be without authority of law to enter the order
complained of, or that it was unreasonable and capricious, the court
shall enter an order declaring the order of the commission null and
void. Where the appeal is from a finding of fact, the order of the com-
mission shall be given the weight of a jury on a fact found. If the
court finds that the findings of fact are not sustained by the evidence,
the court may either declare such findings of fact void or remand the
cause to the commission for further proceedings.

(g) The court shall have authority to assess costs upon either
party, or to apportion such costs between the parties.