---
type: "Bill"
title: "Court buildings; ownership, location, and jurisdiction."
description: "Allows courthouses to be located on property owned jointly by a county and city. Other changes allow Albemarle County to locate its general district courts immediately across the street from the county courthouse and clarify certain jurisdictional issues in cases where a county general district court is established in a city."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2239"
citation: "Virginia HB 2239 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Counties", "Cities and Towns", "Courts Not of Record"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Robert B. Bell"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 16
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-01-08"
last_action: "2019-03-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2baa252b-1078-4dc1-afa1-3c66e88a8176"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2239"
source_hash: "8854bb476ba1755c8bbbf302aaa77886c1efc21828d9ce5cb382eff4691a2ae2"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 2239 (2019) — Court buildings; ownership, location, and jurisdiction.

Allows courthouses to be located on property owned jointly by a county and city. Other changes allow Albemarle County to locate its general district courts immediately across the street from the county courthouse and clarify certain jurisdictional issues in cases where a county general district court is established in a city.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0240)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0240)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2239ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2239ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19102603D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2239)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **15–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Robert B. Bell — primary (person)
- Bryce E. Reeves — cosponsor (person)
- C. Matthew Fariss — cosponsor (person)
- David J. Toscano — cosponsor (person)
- R. Creigh Deeds — cosponsor (person)
- R. Steven Landes — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-01-08** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19102603D `introduction`
- **2019-01-08** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-24** Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #4 `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-01** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-04** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2019-02-05** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-06** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-13** Passed by for the day
- **2019-02-14** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-19** Enrolled
- **2019-02-19** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-20** Signed by President
- **2019-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 21, 2019
- **2019-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-05** Approved by Governor-Chapter 240 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2baa252b-1078-4dc1-afa1-3c66e88a8176`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).