WEST virginia legislature

2020 regular session

Introduced

House Joint Resolution 101

By Delegates Cowles, Foster, Criss, Porterfield, Waxman, Espinosa, Hamrick and Householder

[Introduced January 8, 2020; Referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary]

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia amending sections three, six, and eight, article VIII, thereof, relating to the Judiciary; providing rulemaking oversight of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, circuit courts, and of rules governing the censure, temporary suspension, removal and retirement of justices, judges and magistrates; numbering and designating such proposed amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed amendment.

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:

That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to the voters of the state at the next general election to be held in the year 2020, which proposed amendment is that sections three, six, and eight, article VIII, thereof, be amended and reenacted all to read as follows:

ARTICLE VIII.

§3. Supreme court of appeals; jurisdiction and powers; officers and employees; terms.

The supreme court of appeals shall have original jurisdiction of proceedings in habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition and certiorari. The court shall have appellate jurisdiction in civil cases at law where the matter in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, is of greater value or amount than three hundred dollars unless such value or amount is increased by the Legislature; in civil cases in equity; in controversies concerning the title or boundaries of land; in proceedings in quo warranto, habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition and certiorari; and in cases involving personal freedom or the constitutionality of a law.  It shall have appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases, where there has been a conviction for a felony or misdemeanor in a circuit court, and such appellate jurisdiction as may be conferred upon it by law where there has been such a conviction in any other court.  In criminal proceedings relating to the public revenue, the right of appeal shall belong to the state as well as to the defendant.  It shall have such other appellate jurisdiction, in both civil and criminal cases, as may be prescribed by law.

The court shall have power to promulgate rules for all cases and proceedings, civil and criminal, for all of the courts of the state relating to writs, warrants, process, practice and procedure, which shall be submitted to the Legislature for its review and approval, amendment or rejection, in whole or in part, in the manner prescribed by general law; and upon such approval by the Legislature shall have the force and effect of law.

The court shall have general supervisory control over all intermediate appellate courts, circuit courts and magistrate courts.  The chief justice shall be the administrative head of all the courts.  He may assign a judge from one intermediate appellate court to another, from one circuit court to another, or from one magistrate court to another, for temporary service.  The court shall appoint an administrative director to serve at its pleasure at a salary to be fixed by the court.  The administrative director shall, under the direction of the chief justice, prepare and submit a budget for the court.

The officers and employees of the supreme court of appeals, including the clerk and the law librarian, shall be appointed and may be removed by the court.  Their duties and compensation shall be prescribed by the court.

The number, times and places of the terms of the supreme court of appeals shall be prescribed by law.  There shall be at least two terms of the court held annually.

§6. Circuit court; jurisdiction, authority and power.

Circuit courts shall have control of all proceedings before magistrate courts by mandamus, prohibition and certiorari.

Circuit courts shall have original and general jurisdiction of all civil cases at law where the value or amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, exceeds one hundred dollars unless such value or amount is increased by the Legislature; of all civil cases in equity; of proceedings in habeas corpus, mandamus, quo warranto, prohibition and certiorari; and of all crimes and misdemeanors.  On and after January one, one thousand nine hundred seventy-six, the Legislature may provide that all matters of probate, the appointment and qualification of personal representatives, guardians, committees and curators, and the settlements of their accounts, shall be vested exclusively in circuit courts or their officers, but until such time as the Legislature provides otherwise, jurisdiction in such matters shall remain in the county commissions or tribunals existing in lieu thereof or the officers of such county commissions or tribunals.

Circuit courts shall have appellate jurisdiction in all cases, civil and criminal, where an appeal, writ of error or supersedeas is allowed by law to the judgment or proceedings of any magistrate court, unless such jurisdiction is conferred by law exclusively upon an intermediate appellate court or the supreme court of appeals.

Circuit courts shall also have such other jurisdiction, authority or power, original or appellate or concurrent, as may be prescribed by law.

Subject to the approval of the supreme court of appeals, each circuit court shall have the authority and power to establish local rules to govern the court: Provided, That the rules shall be submitted to the Legislature for its review and approval, amendment or rejection, in whole or in part, in the manner prescribed by general law.

Subject to the supervisory control of the supreme court of appeals, each circuit court shall have general supervisory control over all magistrate courts in the circuit.  Under the direction of the chief justice of the supreme court of appeals, the judge of the circuit court, or the chief judge thereof if there be more than one judge of the circuit court, shall be the administrative head of the circuit court and all magistrate courts in the circuit.

§8. Censure, temporary suspension and retirement of justices, judges and magistrates; removal.

Under its inherent rule-making power, which is hereby declared, the supreme court of appeals shall, from time to time, prescribe, adopt, promulgate and amend rules prescribing a judicial code of ethics, and a code of regulations and standards of conduct and performances for justices, judges and magistrates, along with sanctions and penalties for any violation thereof, and which rules shall be submitted to the Legislature for its review and approval, amendment or rejection, in whole or in part, in the manner prescribed by general law. The supreme court of appeals is authorized to censure or temporarily suspend any justice, judge or magistrate having the judicial power of the state, including one of its own members, for any violation of any such code of ethics, code of regulations and standards, or to retire any such justice, judge or magistrate who is eligible for retirement under the West Virginia judges' retirement system (or any successor or substituted retirement system for justices, judges and magistrates of this state) and who, because of advancing years and attendant physical or mental incapacity, should not, in the opinion of the supreme court of appeals, continue to serve as a justice, judge or magistrate.

No justice, judge or magistrate shall be censured, temporarily suspended or retired under the provisions of this section unless he shall have been afforded the right to have a hearing before the supreme court of appeals, nor unless he shall have received notice of the proceedings, with a statement of the cause or causes alleged for his censure, temporary suspension or retirement, at least twenty days before the day on which the proceeding is to commence.  No justice of the supreme court of appeals may be temporarily suspended or retired unless all of the other justices concur in such temporary suspension or retirement. When rules herein authorized are prescribed, adopted and promulgated, they shall supersede all laws and parts of laws in conflict therewith, and such laws shall be and become of no further force or effect to the extent of such conflict.

A retired justice or judge may, with his permission and with the approval of the supreme court of appeals, be recalled by the chief justice of the supreme court of appeals for temporary assignment as a justice of the supreme court of appeals, or judge of an intermediate appellate court, a circuit court or a magistrate court.

A justice or judge may be removed only by impeachment in accordance with the provisions of section nine, article four of this constitution.  A magistrate may be removed from office in the manner provided by law for the removal of county officers.

Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of article eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such amendment is hereby numbered “Amendment No. 1” and designated as the “West Virginia Judiciary Rulemaking Oversight Amendment” and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: “The purpose of this amendment is to provide the West Virginia Legislature the ability to approve or disapprove of rules promulgated by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and Circuit Courts.”

NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to put a proposed amendment to the West Virginia Constitution on the ballot during the 2020 general elections.  The amendment would provide the West Virginia Legislature rulemaking oversight of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and circuit courts.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.