Senate Bill No. 298
(By Senators Chafin, Bailey, Dalton, Claypole,
Chernenko and Withers)
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[Introduced February 8, 1994; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article three, chapter
five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, relating to the attorney general;
and authorizing the attorney general to regulate the price
of gasoline at the pumps in this state.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article three, chapter five of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. ATTORNEY GENERAL.
§5-3-1. Written opinions and advice and other legal services;
expenditures by state officers, boards and commissions for
legal services prohibited.
The attorney general shall give his written opinion and
advice upon questions of law, and shall prosecute and defend
suits, actions, and other legal proceedings, and generally renderand perform all other legal services, whenever required to do
so, in writing, by the governor, the secretary of state, the
auditor, the state superintendent of free schools, the treasurer,
the commissioner of agriculture, the board of public works, the
tax commissioner, the state archivist and historian, the
commissioner of banking, the adjutant general, the commissioner
of the division of energy, the superintendent of public safety,
the state commissioner of public institutions, the state road
commission, the commissioner of the bureau of employment
programs, the public service commission, or any other state
officer, board or commission, or the head of any state
educational, correctional, penal or eleemosynary institution; and
it shall be unlawful from and after the time this section becomes
effective for any of the public officers, commissions, or other
persons above mentioned to expend any public funds of the state
of West Virginia for the purpose of paying any person, firm, or
corporation for the performance of any legal services: Provided,
That nothing contained in this section shall impair or affect any
existing valid contracts of employment for the performance of
legal services heretofore made.
It shall also be the duty of the attorney general to render
to the president of the Senate and/or the speaker of the House of
Delegates a written opinion or advice upon any questions
submitted to him by them or either of them whenever he shall be
requested in writing so to do.
In addition to the duties of the attorney general imposed bythis section, the attorney general shall regulate the minimum and
maximum price of gasoline at the pump. The attorney general
shall adopt reasonable rules, in accordance with the provisions
of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, that are necessary and
proper to effectuate the regulation of such gasoline prices.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Attorney
General to regulate the minimum and maximum price of gasoline at
the pump in West Virginia.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.