CODE OF VIRGINIA

WHEN OWNER OF LAND MAY SELL DRIFT PROPERTY; OWNER OF PROPERTY ENTITLED TO
PROCEEDS AFTER PAYMENT OF EXPENSES, ETC (§ 55-209)

If the owner of the property shall not, within three months from the time the
same was so deposited, remove or demand the property from the owner of the land,
the owner of the land may sell the property or otherwise convert it to his own
use; but the owner of the land after deducting a just compensation for any
proper care, labor or expense bestowed, done or incurred by him about the
property from the amount received by him as the price thereof, or the actual
value thereof at the time of such sale or other conversion, shall pay to the
owner of the property, if he shall elect to receive it, the residue of the price
or of the actual value, as the case may be. The owner of the property, after he
shall have demanded such residue, and proved by the affidavit of some other
person, or by a competent witness, his right thereto, or offered to prove such
right, and the owner of the land shall have refused or declined to inspect or
hear the evidence thereof, but not before, may recover such residue, when the
property has been sold, as money received for his use, or, when the property has
not been sold, as the price of goods sold by the owner of the property to the
owner of the land, or he may have his action of trover to the extent of such
residue.

HISTORY: Code 1919, § 3571.