H. B. 2244
(By Delegate Damron)
[Introduced January 15, 1999; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend article seven, chapter fifty-five of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty, relating to preventing the recovery of certain
damages sustained during the commission of a crime by the
person convicted of the crime.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article seven, chapter fifty-five of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. ACTIONS FOR INJURIES.
§55-7-20. Recovery of damages for injury to convicted person
prohibited.
(a) A person who has been convicted of a crime may not recover damages for an injury sustained during the commission of
the crime if the injury would not have been sustained but for the
commission of the crime.
(b) Subsection (a) of this section does not bar the person
from recovering damages if the person shows that:
(1) The damages arose from an act entirely separate from any
act intended to result in the:
(A) Prevention of the commission of a crime by the person;
or
(B) Apprehension of the person during or immediately after
the commission of the crime; and
(2) The damages did not arise from a premises defect or
other circumstance that the person was exposed to as a result of
the commission of the crime.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prevent the recovery
of damages for injuries sustained during the commission of a
crime by the person convicted of the crime.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.