15.2-1617 - Deputies of deceased sheriffs.
§ 15.2-1617. Deputies of deceased sheriffs.
If any sheriff dies during his term of office, his chief deputy shall havethe same right to remove any deputy from office and to appoint another, thatthe sheriff himself, if alive, would have had; or any such deputy may beremoved by order of the circuit court for the county or city of which hisprincipal was sheriff; but unless so removed, the deputies of such sheriff,in office at the time of his death, shall continue in office until thequalification of any new sheriff, and execute the office in the name of thedeceased, in like manner as if the sheriff had continued alive until suchqualification. Any default or misfeasance in office of any such deputy shallbe as much a breach of the condition of the bond of the sheriff, and of thebond of such deputy, as if the sheriff had continued alive and in theexercise of his office.
(Code 1950, § 15-510; 1962, c. 623, § 15.1-75; 1971, Ex. Sess., c. 155; 1997,c. 587.)