SB 125 Text

Senate Bill No. 125
(By Senators Kessler and Yoder)
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[Introduced February 9, 2005; referred to the Committee
on Banking and Insurance; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §46A-2-136 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to exemptions from execution or other judicial process in consumer credit transaction or consumer leases.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §46A-2-136 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CONSUMER CREDIT PROTECTION.
§46A-2-136. Personal property exemptions
Any consumer residing in this State may set apart and hold personal property to be exempt from execution or other judicial process resulting from consumer credit transactions or consumer leases, except for the purchase money due on such property, in such amounts as follows: Clothing and other wearing apparel of the consumer, his spouse and any dependents of such consumer, not to exceed the fair market value of two hundred dollars; furniture, appliances, furnishings and fixtures regularly used for family purposes in the consumer's residence, to the extent of the fair market value of one thousand dollars; Children's books, pictures, toys and other such personal property of children; all medical health equipment used for health purposes by the consumer, his spouse and any dependent of such consumer; tools of trade, including any income-producing property used in the consumer's principal occupation, to the extent of the fair market value of one thousand dollars; and any policy of life or endowment insurance which is payable to the spouse or children of the insured consumer or to a trustee for their benefit, except the cash value of any accrued dividends thereon and the personal property which may be exempt from execution or other process in cases other than consumer credit transactions or consumer leases as set out in chapter thirty-eight, article eight, section one of this code. When a consumer claims personal property as exempt under the provisions of this section, he or she shall deliver a list containing all the personal property owned or claimed by him or her and all items of such property he or she claims as exempt hereunder, with the value of each separate item listed according to his or her best knowledge, to the officer holding the execution or other such process. Such list shall be sworn to by affidavit. If the value of the property named in such list exceeds the amounts specified in this section, the consumer shall state at the foot thereof what part of such property he or she claims as exempt. If such value does not exceed the amounts specified in this section, the claim of exemption shall be held to extend to the whole thereof without stating more and, if no appraisement is demanded, the property so claimed shall be set aside as exempt. Where the consumer owning exempt property is absent or incapable of acting or neglects or declines to act hereunder, the claim of exemption may be made, the list delivered and the affidavit made by his or her spouse with the same effect as if the owner had done so. Upon receipt of such a list, the officer to whom it is given shall immediately exhibit such list to the creditor or his or her agent or attorney. The rights granted and procedures provided ~~for~~ in article eight, chapter thirty-eight of this code shall apply to any proceeding under this section, except that the provisions of sections one and three of such article shall not apply.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to conform the exemptions of personal property from execution or other process that apply to consumer credit transactions and consumer leases to conform with the changes made to §38-8-1 made by the 2004 Legislature which changed exemptions in other cases.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

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