                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

EFFECT OF RESERVATION IN DEED; BURDEN OF PROOF (§ 8.01-140)

In any action, suit or other judicial proceeding involving the title to land
embraced in the exterior boundaries of any patent, deed or other writing, which
reserves one or more parcels of land from the operation of such patent, deed or
other writing, if there be no claim made by a party to the proceedings that the
land in controversy, or any part thereof, lies within such reservation, such
patent, deed or other writing shall be construed, and shall have the same
effect, as if it contained no such reservation; and if any party to such
proceeding claims that the land in controversy, or any part thereof, lies within
such reservation, the burden shall be upon him to prove the fact, and all land
not shown by a preponderance of the evidence to lie within such reservation
shall be deemed to lie without the same.
		This section shall apply in cases involving the right to the proceeds of any
such land when condemned or sold, as well as in cases where the title to land is
directly involved, and shall apply in any case in which the title to any part of
the land, or its proceeds, but for this section, would or might be in this
Commonwealth.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 8-810; 1977, c. 617.