Senate Bill No. 594
(By Senator Sypolt)
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[Introduced February 21, 2011; referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure; and then to the Committee on
the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §36-3-5a of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to descriptions of easements and
rights-of-way in deeds and similar instruments.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §36-3-5a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. FORM AND EFFECT OF DEEDS AND CONTRACTS.
§36-3-5a. Easement and right-of-way; description of property;
exception for certain public utility facilities and
mineral leases.
(a) Any deed or instrument that initially grants or reserves
an easement or right-of-way shall describe the easement or right-
of-way by any of the following:
(1) Metes and bounds; or by
(2) Specification of the centerline and width; of the easement
or right-of-way, or by
(3) Station and offset; or
(4) Reference to an attached drawing or plat which may not
require a survey or instrument based on the use of the global
positioning system which may not require a survey. Provided, That
(b) Oil and gas, gas storage and mineral leases shall not be
are not required to describe the easement but shall are required to
describe the land on which the easement or right-of-way will be
situate by source of title or reference to a tax map and parcel,
recorded deed, recorded lease, plat or survey sufficient to
reasonably identify and locate the property on which the easement
or right-of-way is situate Provided, however, That the easement or
right-of-way is not invalid because of the failure of the easement
or right-of-way to meet so long as the easement or right-of-way
meets the requirements of this subsection (a) of this section.
(b) (c) This section does not apply to the construction of a
service extension from a main distribution system of a public
utility when such service extension is located entirely on, below
or above the property to which the utility service is to be
provided.
(c) (d) The clerk of the county commission of any county in
which an easement or right-of-way is recorded pursuant to this
section shall may only accept for recordation any a document that
complies with this section and that otherwise complies with the
requirements of article one, chapter thirty-nine of this code,
without need for a survey or certification under section twelve,
article thirteen-a, chapter thirty of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that
descriptions of right-of-ways and easements include width in
addition to identification of center line when this method of
description is used.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.