CHAPTER 483

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered
58-963.1, providing for the abatement of penalties and interest on
certain taxes assessed against persons in the armed forces of the
United States.

[S 78]

Approved April 5, 1954
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a section numbered
58-963.1 as follows:

§ 58-963.1. Any person who, on or after the first day of January
nineteen hundred fifty-four, was or is assessed with any real estate, per-
sonal property, income or capitation tax for any year during all or any
part of which he was or is in the armed forces of the United States, may,
during the period of such service and within one year after it is terminated,
pay the principal of such tax without the addition of any penalty or in-
terest thereon, either because of failure to file a return within the time
prescribed by law, if a return was required, or because of failure to pay
the tax within the time prescribed by law. Every such person desiring to
be relieved from the payment of such penalty or interest, or both, shall
make requests therefor to the officer receiving the tax at the time pay-
ment is. made. If such officer shall be satisfied from the proof submitted
or the evidence before him that such person was actually in such service
in such year or years, he shall abate such penalty and interest, and he shall
receive credit therefor in the settlement of his accounts; provided, how-
ever, that such collecting officer, if a county or city treasurer, a city or
town collector, or other local collecting officer, shall at least annually
prepare a list in duplicate, certified by him, of all persons so relieved,
giving their names and addresses, the date on which such relief was given
in each case, the tax year and the kind of tax to which such relief relates,
and the amount of penalty and the amount of interest so abated in each
case, the original of which list he shall file with the officer or body with
whom or with which he makes settlement of his accounts, at the time of
such settlement, and the duplicate of which list he shall preserve in his
office. The words ‘‘penalty or interest’, as used herein, shall be construed
to include also all accrued costs and charges which may have been added
to the principal of the tax. Nothing in this section shall be construed as
authorizing or requiring any refunds.

However, the exemptions herein set forth shall be applicable only to
draftees and other persons enlisting in the Armed Forces of the United
States, for the period of the first enlistment and shall not apply to any re-
enlistments, except reserve officers recalled into the Armed Forces.

This act shall remain in force until July first, nineteen hundred and
fifty-six ; provided, however, that should the United States be then engaged
in a war, this act shall remain in force until such war is terminated by a
treaty of peace proclaimed by the President and for six months thereafter.
An Act to amend and reenact §§ 4-52, 4-58, 4-55, 4-57, 4-75, and 4-81 as
amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating respectively to interdiction
for certain offenses and declaring certain possession unlawful in con-
nection with alcoholic beverages, contraband property and other
property subject to forefeiture, confiscation proceedings and disposi-
tion of forfeited articles, illegal manufacture and bottling of alcoholic
beverages and the evidentiary effect of being found at certain places,
the criminal effect of possessing or doing certain acts in relation to
certain alcoholic beverages, nuisances and the punishment for main-
taining such.

[S 90]

Approved April 5, 1954
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 4-52, 4-53, 4-55, 4-57, 4-75, and 4-81 as amended, of the Code
of Virginia, be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 4-52. (a) When any person has been found guilty of the illegal
manufacture or the illegal possession or the illegal transportation or the
illegal sale of alcoholic beverages or maintaining a common nuisance as
defined in § 4-81, the court, or the judge thereof, or the trial justice trying
the case, may without further notice or additional hearing enter an order
of interdiction prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages to such person
for one year from the date of the entry of the order, and thereafter if
further ordered. Such orders of interdiction shall be published in the
same manner and shall have the same effect as orders of interdiction pro-
vided for in § 4-51.

(b) The possession of alcoholic beverages, except such alcoholic
beverages as may have been, or may be, acquired in accordance with the
provisions of §§ 4-48, 4-49 and 4-50, or any of them, by any person who has
been interdicted under the provisions of this chapter, shall be unlawful,
and any interdicted person found in possession of alcoholic beverages in
violation of the provisions of this section shall, notwithstanding any other
provision of this chapter to the contrary, be guilty of a misdemeanor and
punished as provided in § 4-92.

§ 4-53. All stills and distilling apparatus and materials for the manu-
facture of the same, and all alcoholic beverages and materials used in the
manufacture thereof, and all containers in which alcoholic beverages may
be found, which are kept, stored, possessed, or in any manner used in vio-
lation of the provisions of this chapter, and any firearms or weapons of a
like kind which may be used, or which may be found upon the person or
in any vehicle which such person is using, to aid such person in the unlaw-
ful manufacture, transportation or sale of alcoholic beverages, or found
in the possession of such person, or any horse, mule or other beast of burden,
any wagon, automobile, truck or vehicle of any nature whatsoever which
shall be found in the immediate vicinity of any place where alcoholic bev-
erages are being unlawfully manufactured and which such animal or vehicle
is being used to aid in the unlawful manufacture, shall be deemed contra-
band and shall be forfeited to the Commonwealth.

Proceedings for the confiscation of the above property shall be in ac-
cordance with § 4-55 for all such property except motor vehicles.

The proceedings for the confiscation of motor vehicles so used shall be
an accordance with § 4-56.

Such firearms or weapons of a like kind which shall be seized by any
officer charged with the enforcement of this chapter shall be forfeited to
the Commonwealth upon the conviction of the person or persons owning or
possessing such weapons or firearms and shall be sold by order of court
and the proceeds of such sale shall be paid into the Literary Fund.

§ 4-55. All proceedings for the confiscation of articles declared
contraband and forefeited to the Commonwealth under this chapter shall
be as provided in this section:

(a) Whenever any article, which under the provisions of this chapter
is declared contraband and _ required to be forfeited to the
Commonwealth, has been seized, with or without a warrant, by any officer
charged with the enforcement of this chapter, he shall produce the same,
and the person in whose possession it was found, if any. In those cases
where no person is found in possession of such articles the return shall so
state and a copy of the warrant shall be posted on the door of the building
or room wherein the same was found, or if there be no door, then in any
conspicuous place upon the premises.

In case of seizure of a still, doubler, worm, worm tub, mash tub,
fermenting tub, or other distilling apparatus, for any offense involving
forfeiture of the same, where said apparatus shall be of less than five
hundred dollars value, and where it shall be impracticable to remove
the same to a place of safe storage from the place where seized, the
seizing officer 1s authorized to destroy the same only so far as to prevent
the use thereof, or any part thereof, for the purpose of distilling. Such
destruction shall be in the presence of at least one credible witness, and
such witness shall unite with the said officer in a duly sworn report of
said seizure and destruction, to be made to the Board, in which report they
shall set forth the grounds of the claim of forfeiture, the reasons for such
seizure and destruction, their estimate of the fair cash value of the appa-
ratus destroyed, and also of the materials remaining after such destruction,
and a statement that, from facts within their own knowledge, they have no
doubt whatever that said distilling apparatus was set up for use, or had
been used in the unlawful distillation of spirits, and that it was impractic-
able to remove the same to a place of safe storage.

(b) Upon the return of the warrant as provided in this section, the
trial justice, court or judge shall fix a time not less than ten days, unless
waived by the accused in writing, the accused having the right to do so,
and not more than thirty days thereafter, for the hearing of such return,
when he shall proceed to hear and determine whether or not the articles
so seized, or any part thereof, were used or in any manner kept, stored or
possessed in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter. At such
hearing if no claimant shall appear, the trial justice, court or judge shall
declare the articles seized forfeited to the Commonwealth, and, if such
articles be not necessary as evidence in any pending prosecution, shall
turn the same over to the Board as herein required. At such hearing any
person claiming any interest in any of the articles seized may appear and
file a written claim setting forth particularly the character and extent
of his interest; whereupon, if the trial be before a trial justice, he shall
forthwith certify the warrant and the articles seized along with the claim
filed therein to the circuit, corporation or hustings court having jurisdic-
tion, which court shall docket the case. Thereupon the court shall hear
and determine the validity of such claim. If, upon such hearing, the
evidence warrants, the court shall thereupon enter a judgment of forfei-
ture, and order the articles so seized to be turned over to the Board as is
herein required. Action under this section and the forfeiture of any articles
thereunder shall not be a bar to any prosecution under any other provision
of this chapter.

(c) Any articles forfeited to the Commonwealth and turned over to
the Board in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall either be
destroyed or sold by the Board as in its discretion shall be deemed proper.
The net proceeds from every such sale shall be paid into the Literary Fund.
If the Board shall be of the opinion that any alcoholic beverages forfeited
to the Commonwealth and turned over to the Board in accordance with the
provisions of this section, for any reason cannot be sold and should not
be destroyed, it may give the same for medicinal purposes to institutions
in this State supported either in whole or in part by public funds, to supply
the needs of such institutions for alcoholic beverages for such purposes;
provided, that the State Health Commissioner has issued a certificate
stating that such institution has need for such alcoholic beverages, and
that a record showing the amount issued in each case, to whom issued and
the date when issued be made and kept in the office of the Commissioner
and in the office of the Board.

§ 4-57. (a) Except as otherwise provided in §§ 4-48 and 4-89, if any
person shall manufacture in this State alcoholic beverages without being
licensed under the provisions of this chapter to manufacture such alcoholic
beverages, or if any person other than one who holds a brewery license
or a bottler’s license under the provisions of this chapter shall bottle beer
for sale, he shall be guilty of a felony.

(b) Every person found at any distillery, winery or brewery where
alcoholic beverages are being manufactured in violation of the provisions
of this chapter shall be deemed prima facie guilty of manufacturing the
same or aiding and abetting in such manufacture and upon conviction
thereof shall be punished as if personally manufacturing the same.

(c) Any person found guilty of a violation of any provision of this
section shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less
than one year nor more than three years or, in the discretion of the court
or jury trying the case, by confinement in jail not less than six months
nor more than twelve months and a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.

(d) The presence of mash at an unlicensed distillery shall constitute
manufacture within the meaning of this section.

§ 4-75. If any person, other than a common carrier, shall have,
possess, keep, carry, ship or transport alcoholic beverages * upon which
the tax imposed by the laws of Congress has not been paid, he shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor.

The fact that spirits seized in the possession of any person * are in
containers not bearing the required United States Government stamps or
seals shall * for the purposes of this chapter * be prima facie evidence that
the tax imposed has not been paid.

It shall be unlawful to possess alcoholic beverages * in amounts in
excess of one gallon, in containers not. bearing stamps or other evidence
showing the same to have been purchased from the Board or a person
licensed to sell the same under the provisions of this chapter or other
evidence that the tax due to the Commonwealth or the markup required
by the Board has been paid, * unless it can be proved that the alcoholic
beverages were lawfully acquired by the possessor thereof and lawfully
transported into Virginia.

The punishment for any violation of the provisions of this section,
shall be a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred
dollars or confinement in jail for not less than thirty days nor more than
twelve months either or both in the discretion of the court or jury trying
the case; and the trial justice or court, before whom any person is con-
victed for the violation of this section may require such person to give
bond as is provided in § 4.92. *

§ 4-81. (a) All houses, boathouses, buildings, tents, club or fraternity
or lodge rooms, boats, cars and places of every description, including drug
stores, where alcoholic beverages are manufactured, stored, sold, dispensed,
given away or used contrary to law, by any scheme or device whatever,
Shall be deemed common nuisances. Any person who maintains or who
aids or abets or knowingly is associated with others in maintaining such
common nuisance, is guilty of a misdemeanor; and, in addition, after due
notice and opportunity to be heard on the part of any owner or lessor not
involved in the original offense, by a proceeding analogous to that provided
in § 4-56 and upon proof of guilty knowledge, judgment may be given
that such house, building, tent, boathouse, car or other place, or any room
or part thereof, be closed up, but the court may upon the owner or lessor
giving bond in the penalty of not less than five hundred dollars and with
security to be approved by the court, conditioned that the premises shall
not be used for unlawful purposes, or in violation of the provisions of this
chapter for a period of five years, turn the same over to its owner or
lessor ; or proceeding may be had in equity as provided in § 4-82.

In no proceeding under the provisions of this section shall judg-
ment be entered against the owner, lessor or lienholder of property unless
at be proved: (1) that he knew of the unlawful use of the property; and,
(2) that he had the right, because of such unlawful use, to enter and re-
possess the property.