ENROLLED
H. B. 104
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegate Ashley)
[Passed July 14, 1998; in effect from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact sections one and one-a, article eleven,
chapter eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating generally to the
authority of municipalities to prescribe reasonable penalties
in the form of fines, forfeitures and imprisonment; and
providing for the assessment of additional costs against a
defendant.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections one and one-a, article eleven, chapter eight of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 11. POWERS AND DUTIES WITH RESPECT TO ORDINANCES AND
ORDINANCE PROCEDURES.
§8-11-1. Ordinances to make municipal powers effective; penalties
imposed under judgment of mayor or police court or
municipal judge; right to injunctive relief; right to
maintain action to collect fines; additional assessment of costs.
(a) To carry into effect the powers and authority conferred
upon any municipality or its governing body by the provisions of
this chapter, or any past or future act of the Legislature of this
state, the governing body shall have has plenary power and authority to:
(1) Make and pass all needful ordinances, orders, bylaws,
acts, resolutions, rules and regulations not contrary to the
constitution and laws of this state; and for a violation thereof,
to
(2) Prescribe reasonable penalties for violation of its
ordinances, orders, bylaws, acts, resolutions, rules and
regulations,
in the form of fines, forfeitures and imprisonment confinement in
the county or regional jail or the place of imprisonment confinement in such the
municipality, if there be is one, for a term not exceeding thirty
days. Such
(b) The fines, forfeitures and imprisonment confinement shall be recovered,
imposed or enforced under the judgment of the mayor of such the
municipality or the individual lawfully exercising his the mayor's
functions, or the police court judge or municipal court judge of a
city, if there be is one, and may be suspended upon such reasonable
conditions as may be imposed by such the mayor, other authorized individual or judge.
(c) Any municipality may also maintain a civil action in the
name of the municipality in the circuit court of the county in
which the municipality or the major portion of the territory thereof of
the municipality
is located to obtain an injunction to compel
compliance with, or to enjoin a violation or threatened violation
of, any ordinance of such the municipality, and such the circuit court shall
have has
jurisdiction to grant the relief sought. A certified transcript of
a judgment for a fine rendered by a municipal court may be filed in
the office of the clerk of a circuit court and docketed in the
judgment lien book kept in the office of the clerk of the county
commission in the same manner and with the same effect as the
filing and docketing of a certified transcript of judgment rendered
by a magistrate court as provided for in section two, article six,
chapter fifty of this code. The judgment shall include costs
assessed against the defendant.
(d) In addition to any other costs which may be lawfully
imposed, an additional cost shall be imposed in an amount of not
less than forty-two dollars in each proceeding, except that such
additional cost shall not be assessed for a traffic offense that is not a moving violation, or an offense for a traffic offense constituting a
moving violation, regardless of whether the penalty for the
violation provides for a period of incarceration, and for any other
offense for which the ordinance does not provide prescribing the offense provides for a period of incarceration
.
(3) Of the forty-two dollars imposed as
an additional cost, two dollars shall be an are administrative cost costs to be
retained by the municipality, and forty dollars shall be paid into
the regional jail and correctional facility development fund in the
state treasury in accordance with section one-a of this article.
(e) Execution shall be by fieri facias issued by the clerk of
the circuit court in the same manner as such writs are issued on
judgments for a fine rendered by circuit courts or other courts of
record under the provisions of section eleven, article four,
chapter sixty-two of this code.
§8-11-1a. Disposition of criminal costs into state treasury
account for regional jail and correctional facility
development fund.
The clerk of each municipal court, or such other person designated
to receive fines and costs, shall at the end of each month pay into
the regional jail and prison correctional facility development fund in the
state treasury an amount equal to forty dollars of the costs
collected in each proceeding except for traffic offenses that are
not moving violations: involving a traffic offense
constituting a moving violation, regardless of whether the penalty
for such violation provides for a period of incarceration, or any
other offense for which the ordinance prescribing the offense
provides for a period of incarceration:
Provided, That in a case where a defendant has failed to pay all costs assessed against him
or her, no payment shall be made to the regional jail and
prison
correctional facility
development fund unless and until the
defendant has paid all costs which, when paid, are available for
the use and benefit of the municipality.
AdoptedRejected
<<>>