West Virginia Code
Article 1. Estrays and Drift Property
§34-1-8. Same -- Sale or Use

If the owner of such property as is mentioned in section six of this article shall not, within three months from the time the same was so taken up or deposited, remove or demand from the person taking it up, or the owner of such land, such property, the person taking it up or the owner of such land may sell such property, or otherwise convert the same to his own use; but deducting a just compensation for any proper care, labor or expense bestowed, done, or incurred by the person taking it up or the owner of such land about such 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, he shall pay to the owner, if he shall elect to receive it, the residue of the amount received as such price, or otherwise the residue of such actual value. The owner of such property, after he shall have demanded such residue, and proved by the affidavit of some other person, or otherwise by a competent witness, his right thereto, or offered to prove such right, and the owner of such land shall have refused or declined to inspect or hear the evidence thereof, but not before, may recover such residue of such amount received as such price as money received for his use, or the residue of such actual value as the price of goods sold by the owner of such property to the owner of such land, or as the value of goods of the owner of such property found by the owner of such land, and converted by him to his own use.

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