26-50 - Notice required; certain substitutions validated.

§ 26-50. Notice required; certain substitutions validated.

A motion under § 26-48 shall be after reasonable notice to all personsinterested in the execution of the trust other than the plaintiff in suchmotion, and, if any of the parties on whom such notice is required to beserved is under eighteen years of age, the court or clerk shall appoint somediscreet and competent attorney at law as guardian ad litem to such infantdefendant, on whom notice may be served. If any such party is incapacitatedor a convict, the notice shall be served on his committee, guardian orconservator, if any, but if none, a guardian ad litem shall be appointed forhim in the manner hereinbefore provided for the appointment of a guardian adlitem for an infant. No notice need be given to a trustee or, if one haspreviously been appointed, to a substituted trustee who has removed from theCommonwealth, declined to accept the trust, or has resigned, nor to thepersonal representatives of one who is dead, or, if the trustee orsubstituted trustee is a corporation which has been adjudicated a bankrupt orwhose charter then stands revoked, no notice need be given to suchcorporation.

In the case of the substitution of the trustee or trustees in a deed of trustsecuring the payment of indebtedness it shall be necessary to give notice ofthe motion only to the trustee or, if one has previously been appointed, tothe substituted trustee (unless notice to him is dispensed with under theforegoing provisions); any beneficiaries appearing of record or known to theplaintiff, if any; any debtors mentioned in the deed of trust; any personswho may be shown by the deed records to have assumed payment of theindebtedness in whole or in part; and the person or persons in whom theequitable title to the property conveyed by the deed of trust is vested atthe time of the motion as shown by the records. In such case when the writtennotice of motion has been filed in the clerk's office of the court havingjurisdiction as defined in § 26-48, service of such notice as to all partiesmentioned in § 8.01-316 may be made in conformity with the provisions of §§8.01-316 through 8.01-318, 8.01-320, 8.01-322 and 8.01-323.

Any such decree or order of substitution heretofore made by a court ofcompetent jurisdiction is hereby validated.

Nothing herein contained shall be construed as preventing a court of equityfrom substituting a trustee in a suit instituted for that purpose.

(Code 1919, § 6299; 1930, p. 350; 1932, p. 135; 1934, p. 156; 1944, p. 337;1972, c. 825; 1997, c. 921.)