COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 247
(By Senator Schoonover)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 5, 1998.]
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A BILL to repeal sections six-a and six-b, article one, chapter
forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact
sections six, six-c and six-d of said article, all relating
to requirements for the issuance of marriage licenses;
abolishing the requirements for physicals and laboratory
tests; and eliminating certain offenses and penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections six-a and six-b, article one, chapter forty- eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be repealed; and that sections six, six-c
and six-d of said article be amended and reenacted, all to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 1. MARRIAGE.
§48-1-6. Application for license; requirements for issuance of
license.
Every license for marriage shall be issued by the clerk of
the county commission of the county in which either party usually
resides, except that where both parties are nonresidents of the
state of West Virginia, the license shall be issued by the clerk
of the county commission of the county in which application is
made. The license shall be issued not sooner than three days
after the filing with the clerk of a written application
therefor. The day on which the application is filed shall be
counted as the first day, but two full days shall elapse after
the day of filing before the license shall be issued. Before any
license is issued, each applicant shall file with the clerk a
certificate or certificates from any physician duly licensed in
the state, stating that each party has been given an examination,
including a standard serological test, as may be necessary for
the discovery of syphilis, made not more than thirty days prior
to the date on which license is issued, and stating that in the
opinion of the physician the applicant either is not infected
with syphilis or, if so infected, is not in the state of the
disease which is or may later become communicable. The
examinations and tests required by this section may be given as
provided by section nineteen, article four, chapter sixteen of
this code.
The application for a marriage license shall contain a
statement of the full names of both parties, their social
security account numbers, their respective ages and their places of birth and residence. Effective the first day of September,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, the application for a
marriage license shall also contain the following statement:
"The laws of this state affirm your right to enter into this
marriage and at the same time to live within the marriage free
from violence and abuse. Neither of you is the property of the
other. Physical abuse, sexual abuse, battery and assault of a
spouse or other family member, as well as other provisions of the
criminal laws of this state, are applicable to spouses and other
family members and violations thereof are punishable by law."
It shall be signed by both of the parties to the
contemplated marriage, under oath before the clerk of the county
commission or before a person authorized to administer oaths
under the laws of this state. At the time of the execution of
the application, the clerk, or the person administering the oath
to the applicants, shall require some evidence of the age of each
of the applicants. Evidence of the age of each applicant may be
in the form of a certified or photostatic copy of a birth
certificate, a voter's registration certificate, an operator's or
chauffeur's license, an affidavit of both parents or legal
guardian of the applicant or other good and sufficient evidence.
Where such an affidavit is relied upon as evidence of the age of
an applicant, and one parent is dead, the affidavit of the
surviving parent or of the guardian of the applicant shall
suffice; if both parents are dead, the affidavit of the guardian of the applicant shall suffice. If the parents of the applicant
are living separate and apart, the affidavit of the parent having
custody of the applicant shall suffice. The application shall be
recorded in the register of marriages provided for in section
eleven of this article. The date of the filing of the
application shall be noted in the register. The notation, or a
certified copy thereof, is legal evidence of the facts therein
contained.
To the extent otherwise provided by section six-c of this
article, the provisions of this section do not apply.
Applications for licenses may be received and licenses may be
issued by the clerk of the county commission at anytime his or
her office is officially open for the conduct of business.
§48-1-6c. Issuance of license in case of emergency or
extraordinary circumstances.
In case of an emergency or extraordinary circumstances, as
shown by affidavit or other proof, a judge of any court of record
of the county, in which county an application for a marriage
license is to be filed, may direct the clerk of the county court
commission, by order duly entered in the office of the clerk of
said court of record, to issue such license at any time before
the expiration of the three-day limit and to dispense with those
requirements which relate to the filing with the licensing
authority by either or both of the parties of the physician's
certificate and laboratory statement.
A certified copy of the order shall be attached to and filed
with the application by the licensing authority who shall
thereupon proceed with the issuance of the marriage license in
accordance with the terms of the judge's order. In the absence
or incapacity to act of the judges of all courts of record of the
county in which the application is to be filed, the order may be
made and directed to the clerk of the county court commission of
such county by any judge of a court of record in any judicial
circuit adjoining the circuit in which such county is situated.
§48-1-6d. Offenses and penalties.
Any applicant for a marriage license, any physician or
representative of a laboratory who shall knowingly misrepresent
any of the facts called for in the physician's statement or
laboratory report, respectively; and any clerk of the county
court commission or other licensing authority who shall make a
false entry as to the date of application for a marriage license;
and any clerk of the county court commission or other licensing
authority who shall issue a marriage license prior to the end of
the required three-day period or without the required physician's
statement and laboratory report (unless these shall have been
dispensed with by judicial order pursuant to section six-c), or
who shall issue such license despite his having reason to believe
that any of the facts contained in said statement or report have
been misrepresented, or shall issue a license on any Sunday or
after five o'clock p.m. and before eight o'clock a.m. on any weekday, or who shall receive an application for such license or
issue any such license in any place other than the office of such
licensing authority, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than
two hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or by confinement
in jail for not less than three nor more than nine months, or by
both such fine and confinement in the discretion of the court; or
if any clerk of the county court commission or other licensing
authority shall otherwise knowingly issue a marriage license
contrary to law, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
five hundred dollars, or by confinement in jail not more than one
year, or by both such fine and confinement in the discretion of
the court.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to repeal those
provisions of the marriage statutes that require physical
examinations and laboratory tests as a prerequisite to the
issuance of marriage licenses and to further amend the statute to
eliminate reference to these requirements. It also removes the
requirement of a three-day waiting period for the issuance of the
license and eliminates the offenses and penalties section.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.)