Bill Text: WV SB608 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Clarifying lawful business structures are unaffected by enactment of prohibitory legislation
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2017-05-23 - Chapter 23, Acts, Regular Session, 2017 [SB608 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2017-SB608-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2017 regular session
Introduced
Senate Bill 608
By Senators Trump, Woelfel, Weld, Gaunch and Plymale
[Introduced March 15, 2017;
Referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary]
A BILL to amend and reenact §2-2-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to clarifying that regulatory, noncriminal legislative enactments prohibiting a type or types of businesses, or business structures are inapplicable to lawful businesses and business structures operating in this state prior to the effective date of the prohibiting enactment; and updating provisions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §2-2-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. LEGAL HOLIDAYS; SPECIAL MEMORIAL DAYS; CONSTRUCTION OF STATUTES; DEFINITIONS.
§2-2-10. Rules for construction of statutes.
The following rules shall
be observed in the construction of statutes, unless a different intent on the
part of the Legislature be is apparent from the context:
(a) A word importing the singular number only may be applied to several persons or things, as well as to one person or thing; a word importing the plural number only may be applied to one person or thing as well as to several; and a word importing the masculine gender only may be applied to females as well as males;
(b) Words purporting to
give a joint authority to three or more persons confer such the authority
upon a majority of them, and not upon any less number;
(c) The words "written"
or "in writing" include any representation of words, letters or
figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing or otherwise. But when the
signature of any person is required, it must be in his or her own proper
handwriting, or his or her mark, attested, proved or acknowledged: Provided,
That unless a provision of this code specifically provides otherwise, an
electronic signature satisfies this signature requirement if the electronic
signature meets the requirements of subsection (a), section three, article
five, chapter thirty nine section two, article one, chapter
thirty-nine-a of this code;
(d) The words "preceding,"
"succeeding" or "following" used in reference to any
section or sections of a chapter or statute, mean next preceding, next succeeding
or next following that in which such the reference is made,
unless a different interpretation be required by the context;
(e) An officer shall be
deemed to have has qualified when he or she has done all that is
required by law to be done before proceeding to exercise the authority and
discharge the duties of his or her office;
(f) The words "the Governor" are equivalent to "the executive of the state" or "the person having the executive power";
(g) "Justice" or "justices"
as used in article one, chapter fifty-one of this code and in other references
to a member or members of the Supreme Court of Appeals shall mean and
apply to a judge or the judges of said that court as provided for
in the Constitution of the State. The word "justice" in any most
any other context is equivalent to the word “magistrate,” except when
used as an historical reference to the words "justice of the peace."
and The word "notary" is equivalent to "notary public";
(h) The word "state," when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories;
(i) The word "person"
or "whoever" shall include includes corporations,
societies, associations and partnerships, and other similar legal business organizations
authorized by the Legislature, if not restricted by the context;
(j) The words "personal representative" include the executor of a will, the administrator of the estate of a deceased person, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator de bonis non of such estate, whether there be a will or not, the sheriff or other officer lawfully charged with the administration of the estate of a deceased person, and every other curator or committee of a decedent's estate for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action which accrued to or against such decedent;
(k) The word "will" embraces a testament, a codicil, an appointment by will or writing in the nature of a will in exercise of a power, also any other testamentary disposition;
(l) The word "judgment" includes decrees and orders for the payment of money or the conveyance or delivery of land or personal property, or some interest therein, or any undertaking, bond or recognizance which has the legal effect of a judgment;
(m) The words "under
disability" include persons under the age of eighteen years, insane
persons, and convicts while confined in the penitentiary a
correctional facility;
(n) The words "insane person" include everyone who has mental illness as defined in section two, article one, chapter twenty-seven of this code;
(o) The word "convict"
means a person confined in the a penitentiary or correctional
facility of this or any other state, or of the United States;
(p) The word "land" or "lands" and the words "real estate" or "real property" include lands, tenements and hereditaments, all rights thereto and interests therein except chattel interests;
(q) The words "personal estate" or "personal property" include goods, chattels, real and personal, money, credits, investments and the evidences thereof;
(r) The word "property" or "estate" embraces both real and personal estate;
(s) The word "offense" includes every act or omission for which a fine, forfeiture or punishment is imposed by law;
(t) The expression "laws of the state" includes the Constitution of the State and the Constitution of the United States, and treaties and laws made in pursuance thereof;
(u) The word "town" includes a city, village or town, and the word "council," any body or board, whether composed of one or more branches, who are authorized to make ordinances for the government of a city, town or village;
(v) When a council of a
town, city or village, or any board, number of persons or corporations, are
authorized to make ordinances, bylaws, rules, regulations or orders, it
shall be understood that the same must be consistent with the laws of this
state;
(w) The words "county
court" include any existing tribunal created in lieu of a county court commission;
the words "commissioner of the county court" and "county
commissioner" mean, and have reference to, the commissioners, or one of
them, composing the a county court commission in
pursuance of section twenty-two nine, article eight nine
of the Constitution, as amended, or any existing tribunal created in lieu of a
county court commission;
(x) The word "horse" embraces a stallion, a mare and a gelding;
(y) The words "railroad"
and "railway" shall be construed by the courts of this state to
mean means the same thing in law; and, in any proceeding wherein
in which a railroad company or a railway company is a party, it shall
is not be deemed an error to call a railroad company a
railway company or vice versa; nor shall may any demurrer, plea
or any other defense be set up to a motion, pleading or indictment in
consequence of such the misdescription;
(z) The sectional headings
or headlines of the several sections of this code printed in black-faced type
are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the section and shall
are not be deemed or taken to be titles of such the
sections, or as any part of the statute, and, unless expressly so
provided, they shall are not be so deemed part of the
statute when any of such the sections, including the headlines,
are amended or reenacted;
(aa) The words "infant"
and "minor" mean persons under the age of eighteen years as such
words are used in this code or in rules and regulations promulgated
by the Supreme Court of Appeals;
(bb) A statute is presumed to be prospective in its operation unless expressly made retrospective;
(cc) Unless there is a
provision in a section, article or chapter of this code specifying that the
its provisions thereof shall are not be severable,
the provisions of every section, article or chapter of this code, whether
enacted before or subsequent to the effective date of this subdivision, shall
be are severable so that if any provision of any such
section, article or chapter is held to be unconstitutional or void, the
remaining provisions of such the section, article or chapter shall
remain valid, unless the court finds the valid provisions are so essentially
and inseparably connected with, and so dependent upon, the unconstitutional or
void provision that the court cannot presume the Legislature would have enacted
the remaining valid provisions without the unconstitutional or void one, or
unless the court finds the remaining valid provisions, standing alone, are
incomplete and are incapable of being executed in accordance with the legislative
intent: Provided, That if any such section, article or chapter of
this code has its own severability clause, then such that severability
clause shall govern and control governs and controls with respect
to such that section, article or chapter in lieu of the
provisions of this subdivision. The provisions of this subdivision shall be
are fully applicable to all future amendments or additions to this code,
with like effect as if the provisions of this subdivision were set forth in
extenso in every such amendment or addition and were reenacted as a part
thereof, unless such the amendment or addition contains its own
severability clause;
(dd) A reference to any section, article or chapter of this code applies to all reenactments, revisions or amendments thereof;
(ee) If a statute refers to
a series of numbers or letters, the first and the last numbers or letters in
the series are deemed considered to be included;
(ff) The words "board
of regents," wherever they appear in the code, means the board of
trustees created by section one, article one, chapter eighteen-b of this code
and the board of directors created by section one, article one, chapter
eighteen-b Higher Education Policy Commission created in article one-b,
chapter eighteen-b of this code or the West Virginia Council for Community and
Technical College Education created in article two-b, chapter eighteen-b of
this code unless the term is used in relation to activities conducted solely by
an institution or institutions governed by article two two-a chapter
eighteen-b of this code in which case it only means the board of trustees or
where the term is used in relation to activities conducted solely by an
institution or institutions governed by article three, chapter eighteen-b of
the code in which case it only means the board of directors governors
of the specific institution or institutions.
(gg) No legislative enactment of a regulatory, noncriminal nature may be construed to prohibit a lawful business or business structure in existence and operating in this state prior to the effective date of the enactment of legislation prohibiting the operation of such business or business structure absent an express legislative declaration in the enactment that the existing business or business structure is prohibited from continuing after the effective date of the enactment.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify that lawful businesses or business structures operating in this state are unaffected by enactment of prohibitory legislation absent express language in the enactment prohibiting the continued operation of the business or use of a business structure.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
