                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

PROCEDURE WHEN COMMISSIONERS FAIL TO AGREE (§ 15.2-3104)

If the commissioners fail to agree upon the location of the line, they shall so
report to the circuit courts for their respective localities, stating in their
reports the points and grounds of disagreement and describing fully the
conflicting lines. Either locality may file a petition in the circuit court for
either locality to have a court, constituted as hereinafter provided, ascertain
and establish the true boundary line in doubt or dispute. Such petition shall
describe, with reasonable certainty, the location contended for and shall state
the grounds of such contention. A plat, showing the location contended for,
filed with the petition, may serve the purposes of such description. The
petitioner shall make the other locality the party defendant, and the case shall
be commenced by serving a copy of the petition upon the county attorney, if any,
or the attorney for the Commonwealth of such county, the city attorney of such
city or the town attorney of such town. No formal plea or answer to the petition
shall be necessary, but the defendant shall state its grounds of defense in
writing, describing, with the same degree of certainty required of the
petitioner, the line as contended for by the defendant, and the locality shall
be deemed to be at issue. The issue shall be the true location of the boundary
line so in doubt or dispute.
		The case shall be heard and decided by a court without a jury presided over by
three judges as follows: the judge of the circuit court for the petitioning
locality, the judge of the circuit court for the defendant locality, and a judge
of some circuit court in this Commonwealth remote from the localities, to be
designated by the Chief Justice. When the localities are within the same
circuit, the Chief Justice shall designate a third judge from an adjoining
circuit. The court shall hear the case upon the evidence introduced in the
manner in which evidence is introduced in common-law cases and shall ascertain
and establish the true boundary line by a majority decision, and shall give
judgment accordingly. Costs shall be awarded as the court shall determine. The
judgment of the court shall be recorded in the common-law order book and in the
current deed book of the court and indexed in the names of the localities, and,
unless reversed, shall forever settle, determine, designate and establish the
true boundary line. A copy of any final judgment shall be certified to the
Secretary of the Commonwealth. Either party may appeal from the judgment of the
court to the Court of Appeals, and the cost of such appeal shall be awarded to
the party substantially prevailing. If an appeal is taken from the judgment of
the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court, in matters in which it grants the
petition for appeal, shall render a decision and award the costs of the appeal
to the party that substantially prevailed.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 15-42; 1954, c. 536; 1962, c. 623, § 15.1-1030; 1970, c.
751; 1973, c. 544; 1978, c. 642; 1979, c. 456; 1997, c. 587; 2021, Sp. Sess. I,
c. 489.