Senate Bill No. 464
(By Senator Jenkins)
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[Introduced February 2, 2006;
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §31E-3-301 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to providing that
churches and other religious entities may incorporate.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §31E-3-301 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. PURPOSES AND POWERS.
§31E-3-301. Purposes.
Corporations may be organized under this chapter for any
lawful purpose, including any one or more of the following
purposes: Charitable, benevolent, eleemosynary, educational,
civic, patriotic, political, religious, social, fraternal,
literary, cultural, athletic, scientific, agricultural,
horticultural, animal husbandry and professional commercial, industrial or trade association.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that churches
and other religious entities may incorporate. While existing code
contains the underlined word "religious" the previous bill which
later was incorporated into law that included "religious" had a
defective bill title to the extent it did not specify a
modification allowing churches or other religious entities to
incorporate. Therefore, the proposed amendment is intended to
quiet any prospective legal challenge to this provision.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)