CHAPTER 387

An Act to amend and reenact § 8-636, as amended, of the Code of Virginia,
relating to the amount and distribution of "damages in actions for
death by wrongful act.

[H 301]

Approved March 29, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 8-686, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 8-636. The jury in any such action may award such damages as to
it may seem fair and just, not exceeding * thirty thousand dollars, and
may direct in what proportion they shall be distributed to the surviving
widow or husband and children and grandchildren of the deceased, or if
there be none such, then to the parents, brothers and sisters of the deceased.
Nothing shall be apportioned to the parents, brothers and sisters of the
deceased, if there be a surviving widow or husband, children or grand-
children, but between members of the same class the jury shall have abso-
lute discretion as to who shall receive the whole or any part of the recovery.
The maximum amount of damages that may be awarded under this section
to thirty thousand dollars shall not apply to any cause of action arising
prior to July one, nineteen hundred fifty-eight.