CHAPTER 404

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered
16.1-118.1, relating to the destruction of papers in civil cases in certain
county courts.

[S 428}

Approved April 1, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a section numbered
16.1-118.1 as follows:

§ 16.1-118.1. In any county having a population of more than
seventy thousand but less than seventy-five thousand or more than one
hundred thousand but less than one hundred twenty-five thousand and
adjoining a city having a population of more than two hundred thousand
but less than three hundred thousand, the clerk of any county court in
which papers are filed and preserved under § 16.1-115 may destroy the
files, papers and records connected with any civil case in such court, 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 the right to issue an
execution or bring a scire facias or an action on such judgment is barred
by §§ 8-396 and 8-397: 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 refer-
ence to any particular case; and .

(5) The audit has been made for the period to which the files, papers
and records are applicable.