CHAPTER 555

An Act to amend and reenact § 8-272, as amended, of the Code of Virginia,
relating to authentication of official records and their admissibility
onto evidence.

[fH 616]

Approved March 31, 1964

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 8-272, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

_ § 8-272. * (a) An official record or an entry therein, when ad-
missible for any purpose, may be evidenced by an official publication
thereof or by a copy attested by the officer having the legal custody of the
record, or by his deputy, and accompanied with a certificate that such
officer has the custody. If the office in which the record is kept 1s within
the United States or within a territory or insular possession subject to the
dominion of the United States, the certificate may be made by a judge of
a court of record of the district or political subdivision in which the record
1s kept, authenticated by the seal of the court, or may be made by any
public officer having a seal of office and having official duties in the district
or political subdivision in which the record is kept, authenticated by the
seal of his office. If the office in which the record is kept 1s in a foreign
state or country, the certificate may be made by a secretary of embassy
or legation, consul general, consul, vice consul, or consular agent or by
any officer in the foreign service of the United States stationed in the
foreign state or county in which the record is kept, and authenticated by
the seal of his office.

(b) A written statement signed by an officer having the custody of
an official record or by his deputy that after diligent search no record
or entry of a specified tenor is found to exist in the records of his office,
accompanied by a certificate as above provided, is admissible as evidence
that the records of his office contain no such record or entry.

(c) This rule does not prevent the proof of official records or of
entry or lack of entry therein by any method authorized by any applicable
statute or by the rules of evidence at common law.

(d) Printed copies of schedules and classifications and tariffs of rates.
fares and charges, and supplements thereto, filed with the Interstate Com-
merce Commission, or State Corporation Commission, which show respec-
tively an Interstate Commerce Commission or State Corporation Commis-
sion number, which may be stated in abbreviated form, as I.C.C.No. _——.,
or V. C. C. No. ......- , and an effective date, may be received in evidence
without authentication or certification, and shall be presumed to be correct
copies of the original schedules, classifications, tariffs and supplements
on file with the Interstate Commerce Commission or State Corporation
Commission.