Senate Bill No. 339
(By Senator Foster)
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[Introduced January 24, 2008; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §39A-4-1, §39A-4-2,
§39A-4-3, §39A-4-4, §39A-4-5, §39A-4-6, §39A-4-7, §39A-4-8,
§39A-4-9 and §39A-4-10, all relating to real property;
enacting the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act;
providing for the recording of electronic real property
documents by county clerks; and validity of real property
documents with electronic signatures.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §39A-4-1, §39A-4-2,
§39A-4-3, §39A-4-4, §39A-4-5, §39A-4-6, §39A-4-7, §39A-4-8, §39A-
4-9 and §39A-4-10, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. UNIFORM REAL PROPERTY ELECTRONIC RECORDING ACT.
§39A-4-1.
Short title.
This act may be cited as the "Uniform Real Property Electronic
Recording Act".
§39A-4-2.
Definitions.
As used in this article:
(a) "Document" means information that is:
(1) Inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an
electronic or other medium and that is retrievable in perceivable
form; and
(2) Eligible to be recorded in the land records maintained by
a county clerk;
(b) "Electronic" means relating to technology having
electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic
or similar capabilities;
(c) "Electronic document" means a document that is received by
a county clerk in an electronic form;
(d) "Electronic signature" means an electronic sound, symbol
or process attached to or logically associated with a document and
executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the
document;
(e) "Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust,
estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association,
joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental
subdivision, agency or instrumentality or any other legal or
commercial entity; and
(f) "State" means a state of the United States, the District
of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any
territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the
United States.
§39A-4-3.
Validity of electronic documents.
(a) In this section, "paper document" means a document that is
received by the recorder in a form that is not electronic.
(b) A county clerk:
(1) Who implements any of the functions listed in this section
shall do so in compliance with standards established by the joint
commission on technology, in consultation with the county clerks of
West Virginia, pursuant to Section 5 of the Uniform Real Property
Electronic Recording Act;
(2) May receive, index, store, archive and transmit electronic
documents;
(3) May provide for access to, and for search and retrieval
of, documents and information by electronic means;
(4) Who accepts electronic documents for recording shall
continue to accept paper documents as authorized by state law and
shall place entries for both types of documents in the same index;
(5) May convert paper documents accepted for recording into
electronic form;
(6) May convert into electronic form information recorded
before the recorder began to record electronic documents;
(7) May accept electronically any fee that the county clerk is
authorized to collect; and
(8) May agree with other officials of a state or a political
subdivision thereof, or of the United States, on procedures or
processes to facilitate the electronic satisfaction of prior
approvals and conditions precedent to recording and the electronic
payment of fees.
§39A-4-4.
Recording of documents.
(a) In this section, "paper document" means a document that is
received by the recorder in a form that is not electronic.
(b) A county clerk:
(1) Who implements any of the functions listed in this section
shall do so in compliance with standards established by the joint
commission on technology, in consultation with the county clerks of
West Virginia, pursuant to Section 5 of the Uniform Real Property
Electronic Recording Act;
(2) May receive, index, store, archive and transmit electronic
documents;
(3) May provide for access to, and for search and retrieval
of, documents and information by electronic means;
(4) Who accepts electronic documents for recording shall
continue to accept paper documents as authorized by state law and
shall place entries for both types of documents in the same index;
(5) May convert paper documents accepted for recording into electronic form;
(6) May convert into electronic form information recorded
before the recorder began to record electronic documents;
(7) May accept electronically any fee that the county clerk is
authorized to collect; and
(8) May agree with other officials of a state or a political
subdivision thereof, or of the United States, on procedures or
processes to facilitate the electronic satisfaction of prior
approvals and conditions precedent to recording and the electronic
payment of fees.
§39A-4-5.
Administration and standards.
(a) The joint commission on technology, in consultation with
the county clerks of West Virginia, shall adopt standards to
implement the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act.
(b) To keep the standards and practices of county clerks in
this state in harmony with the standards and practices of recording
offices in other jurisdictions that enact substantially the Uniform
Real Property Electronic Recording Act and to keep the technology
used by recorders in this state compatible with technology used by
recording offices in other jurisdictions that enact substantially
the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, the joint
commission on technology, in consultation with the county clerks of
West Virginia, so far as is consistent with the purposes, policies
and provisions of the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, in adopting, amending and repealing standards shall consider:
(1) Standards and practices of other jurisdictions;
(2) The most recent standards promulgated by national
standard-setting bodies, such as the property records industry
association;
(3) The views of interested persons and governmental officials
and entities; and
(4) The needs of counties of varying size, population and
resources.
§39A-4-6.
Uniformity of application and construction.
In applying and construing the Uniform Real Property
Electronic Recording Act, consideration shall be given to the need
to promote uniformity of the law with respect to its subject matter
among states that enact it.
§39A-4-7.
Relation to Electronic Signatures in Global and National
Commerce Act.
The Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act modifies,
limits and supersedes the federal Electronic Signatures in Global
and National Commerce Act but does not modify, limit or supersede
Section 101(c) of that act or authorize electronic delivery of any
of the notices described in Section 103(b) of that act.
§39A-4-8. Secretary of State; liability.
The Secretary of State, serving as authority and repository of
signature keys for governmental entities shall revoke any signature key when the secretary has reason to believe that the digital
signature key has been stolen, fraudulently used or otherwise
compromised. This article creates no liability upon the Secretary
of State for any transaction compromised by any illegal act or
inappropriate uses associated with electronic signatures.
§39A-3-9. Severability.
If any provision of this article be found by a court of
competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable under the Constitution
of this state or the laws and Constitutions of the United States,
the remaining provisions of this article shall be severable and
shall continue in full force and effect.
§39A-4-10. Effective date.
The effective date of the provisions of this act is on the
first day of July, two thousand eight.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
provide for the recording
of electronic real property documents by county clerks and the
validity of real property documents with electronic signatures.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.