CHAPTER 349

An Act to amend and reenact § 8-805, as amended, of the Code of Virginta,
relating to deposition of witnesses; who may take; and to repeal § 8-310
of the Code of Virginia.

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 8-305, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 8-305. In any pending case the deposition of a witness, whether a
party to the suit or action or not, who * 1s out of this State * may be taken
before any commissioner appointed by the Governor of this State, or any
justice of the peace, notary, or other officer authorized to take depositions
in the state wherein the witness may be, or, if the deposition is to be taken
in a foreign country, before any person that the parties may agree upon in
writing, or any American minister plenipotentiary, charge d’affaires, consul
general, consul, vice consul, commercial agent appointed by the government
of the United States, or any other representative of the United States in a
foreign country, including commissioned officers of the armed services of
the United States, or the mayor, or other magistrate of any city, town, or
corporation in such country, or any notary therein. Any person, before
whom a deposition may so be taken, may administer an oath to the witness,
and take and certify the deposition with his official seal annexed; and if
he have none, then the genuineness of his signature shall be authenticated
by some officer of the same state or country, under his official seal, unless
the person taking such acknowledgment be a commissioned officer of the
armed services of the United States, in which case no seal shall be required,
but his signature shall be authenticated by the commanding officer of the
military installation or ship to which he is assigned, or unless the deposition
is taken by a justice out of this State, but in the United States, or before
some person agreed upon in writing by the parties, in which case his certifi-
cate shall be received without any seal annexed, or other authentication
of his signature. When a deposition is taken before some person agreed
upon in writing by the parties other than an officer authorized to take the
deposition, such writing shall be returned with the deposition, and the depo-
sition shall not be read unless such writing is so returned.

2. That § 8-310 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.