CHAPTER 444

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 16.1-116 and 16.1-118 of the Code of
Virginia, relating to issuance of executions upon and abstracts of
judgments in civil actions in courts not of record, and destruction of
papers in such cases.

[H 277]

Approved March 31, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§ 16.1-116 and 16.1-118 of the Code of Virginia be amended
and reenacted as follows:

§ 16.1-116. When a judgment has been rendered in a civil action in
a court not of record and the papers in the action have been returned
to the clerk of the circuit or corporation court for filing and preserving,
executions upon and abstracts of the judgment may be issued by the
clerk of such circuit or corporation court within the periods permitted
under §§ 8-896 and 8-897, provided, that such judgment has been duly
entered in the judgment lien docket book of such court. However, for a
period of two years from the date of any such judgment, the judge or
clerk of the court not of record may also issue executions upon and
abstracts of the judgment.

§ 16.1-118. The clerk of any court of record to whose office papers
in civil cases in the county court have been returned for indexing and
preserving under § 16.1-115 may destroy the files, papers and records
connected with any such civil case, if:

(1) Such case was dismissed without any adjudication of the merits
of the controversy, and the final order entered was one of dismissal and
one year has elapsed from the date of such dismissal; or

(2) Judgment was entered in such case but * twenty years have
elapsed since entry of such judgment and the same has not been entered
in the judgment lien docket book of the court to which the papers were
returned; or

(3) No service of the warrant or motion or other process or summons
was had on any defendant and one year has elapsed from the date of such
process or summons; and

(4) The destruction of such papers is authorized and directed by an
order of the judge of the court in which they are preserved, which order
may refer to such papers by any one or more of the above classifications,
or to any group or kind of cases embraced therein, without express
reference to any particular case.