Sale of unclaimed timber, etc., found adrift; disposition of proceeds

Any person, except the owner thereof, taking up and securing any sawlog, pile, hewn timber or square timber detached from any raft and found adrift or aground on any of the waters or streams mentioned in § 59.1-103 , shall promptly report such fact to the owner thereof, or shall lodge a list containing a description of the quantity, quality, and marks, if any, of such timber with a magistrate serving the jurisdiction where such timber was so found and secured, which magistrate shall promptly advertise the same for five consecutive days in a newspaper published in the City of Norfolk. If such timber shall not be claimed by the owner thereof within thirty days after such publication it shall be lawful for the magistrate to order the sale thereof at public auction by an officer after giving five days' notice of the time, place, and terms of such sale by not less than six handbills posted in the most public places in the vicinity where the same was found and within the county wherein the magistrate serves. Out of the proceeds of such sale the magistrate, after paying the expenses of the advertisement and handbills, together with all the other costs of such proceeding at law, shall pay to the person or persons who found and secured the timber ten cents for each piece thereof so taken and secured, and the residue of such proceeds of sale shall be paid into the state treasury for the benefit of the Commonwealth.

Code 1950, § 59-203; 1968, c. 439; 2008, cc. 551 , 691 .