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2002 SESSION


CHAPTER 276
An Act to amend and reenact § 17.1-249 of the Code of Virginia, relating to grantor/grantee index; clerk's office.
[H 869]
Approved April 1, 2002

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 17.1-249 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 17.1-249. General indexes for clerks' offices; daily index.

A. There shall be kept in every clerk's office modern, family name or ledgerized alphabetical key-table general indexes to all deed books, miscellaneous liens, will books, judgment dockets and court order books. The clerk shall enter daily either in such general indexes or in the daily index to instruments admitted to record every deed, corrected or amended deed, deed of release, deed of trust, contract of sale, or any addendum or memorandum relating to any of these instruments, indexing each instrument in the names of all parties listed in the first clause of each instrument as required by §§ 55-48 and 55-58. Any clerk, deputy clerk, or employee of any clerk who so indexes any such instrument shall index any name appearing in the first clause of the original instrument.

B. A deed made to one or more trustees to secure the payment of an indebtedness shall be sufficiently indexed if the clerk enters in the appropriate places in the general index to deeds provided for in subsection A the names of the grantor and the name of the beneficiary or, in lieu of the name of the beneficiary, the first listed trustee as grantee. The beneficiary need not be named in the first clause of the deed as a condition of recordation.

C. A deed made by a person in a representative capacity, or by devisees or coparceners, shall be indexed in the names of the grantors and grantees and the name of the former record title owner listed in the first clause of the instrument.

D. The general indexes of law and chancery causes shall be sufficiently kept if the clerk indexes such causes under the short style or title thereof, except that in multiple suits brought under § 58.1-3968, the names of all of the defendants disclosed by the pleadings shall be entered in the general index or book.

E. Every deed of conveyance of real estate in which a vendor's lien is reserved shall be double indexed so as to show not only the conveyance from the grantor to the grantee in the instrument, but also the reservation of the lien as if it were a grant of the same from the grantee to the grantor by a separate instrument and the fact of the lien shall be noted in the index.

F. All deed books, miscellaneous liens, will books, judgment dockets, and court order books shall be numbered or otherwise adequately designated and the clerk upon the delivery of any writing to him for record required by law to be recorded shall duly index it upon the general index in the manner hereinbefore required. When the writing has been actually transcribed on the book, the clerk shall add to the general index the number of the book in which, and the page on which, the writing is recorded.

G. The clerk on receipt of any such writing for record may immediately index it in a book to be known as the "daily index of instruments admitted to record" and within ninety days after its admission to record the clerk shall index all such writings indexed in the daily index in the appropriate general index as hereinbefore provided. The daily index book shall, at all times, be kept in the office of the clerk and conveniently available for examination by the public. During the period permitted for transfer from the daily index to the general index, indexing in the daily index shall be a sufficient compliance with the requirements of this section as to indexing.

H. The judge of any circuit court may make such orders as he deems advisable as to the time and method of indexing the order books in the clerk's office of the court and may dispense with a general index for order books of the court.

I. The clerk may maintain his indexes on computer, word processor, microfilm, microfiche, or other micrographic medium and, in addition, may maintain his grantor and grantee indexes on paper.