ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 238
(By Senator Kessler)
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[Passed March 6, 2008; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact §50-4-8 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §51-2-2 of said
code, all relating to increasing the monetary jurisdictional
requirement for circuit courts; increasing the monetary
jurisdictional amount for removal of a civil suit from
magistrate court to circuit court; increasing the monetary
jurisdictional amount to file a civil suit in circuit court;
and clarifying original and general jurisdiction of circuit
courts.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §50-4-8
of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that §51-2-2
of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 50. MAGISTRATE COURTS.
ARTICLE 4. PROCEDURE BEFORE TRIAL.
§50-4-8. Removal to circuit court.
At any time before trial in a civil action involving less than
two thousand five hundred dollars the action may be removed to
circuit court upon the concurrence of all parties and upon the
payment of the circuit court filing fee. At any time before trial
in a civil action involving two thousand five hundred dollars or
more, any party may, upon payment of the circuit court filing fee,
cause such action to be removed to the circuit court. All
appropriate documents shall then be forwarded along with such fee
to the clerk of the circuit court. The matter shall then be heard
by the circuit court.
CHAPTER 51. COURTS AND THEIR OFFICERS.
ARTICLE 2. CIRCUIT COURTS; CIRCUIT JUDGES.
§51-2-2. Jurisdiction.
(a) The circuit court shall have supervision and control of
all proceedings before magistrates, by mandamus, prohibition and
certiorari.
(b) Except in cases confined exclusively by the constitution
to some other tribunal, the circuit court shall have original and
general jurisdiction of all matters at law where the amount in
controversy, excluding interest, exceeds two thousand five hundred
dollars:
Provided, That the jurisdictional limit on amounts in
controversy does not apply to real estate installment sales
contracts.
(c) The circuit court shall have original and general
jurisdiction in all of the following matters:
(1) Habeas corpus;
(2) Mandamus;
(3) Quo warranto;
(4) Prohibition;
(5) Crimes; and
(6) Misdemeanors.
(d) The circuit court shall have original and general
jurisdiction in all cases in equity, including jurisdiction in
equity to remove any cloud on the title to real property, or any
part of a cloud, or any estate, right or interest in the real
property, and to determine questions of title with respect to the
real property without requiring allegations or proof of actual
possession of the real property.
(e) The circuit court shall have appellate jurisdiction in all
cases, civil and criminal, where an appeal, writ of error or
supersedeas may be allowed to the judgment or proceedings of any
inferior tribunal.
(f) The circuit court shall also have any other jurisdiction,
whether supervisory, original, appellate or concurrent, as is or
may be prescribed by law.