2015 Code of Virginia
Title 55 - Property and Conveyances
§ 55-209. When owner of land may sell drift property; owner of property entitled to proceeds after payment of expenses, etc

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.

Code 1919, § 3571.