Senate Bill No. 546
(By Senators McCabe, Jenkins, Foster, Oliverio and Yoder)
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[Introduced March 15, 2005; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §56-6-31 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to equalizing the interest rates
allowed for prejudgment and post-judgment interest.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §56-6-31 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. TRIAL.
§56-6-31. Interest on judgment or decree.
(a) Except where it is otherwise provided by law, every
judgment or decree for the payment of money entered by any court of
this state shall bear interest from the date thereof, whether it be
so stated in the judgment or decree or not: Provided, That if the
judgment or decree, or any part thereof, is for special damages, as
defined below, or for liquidated damages, the amount of such the
special or liquidated damages shall bear interest from the date the
right to bring the same shall have accrued, as determined by the
court. Special damages includes lost wages and income, medical expenses, damages to tangible personal property, and similar
out-of-pocket expenditures, as determined by the court. The rate
of interest shall be ten is six dollars upon one hundred dollars
per annum, and proportionately for a greater or lesser sum, or for
a longer or shorter time, notwithstanding any other provisions of
law.
(b) The amended interest rate set forth in subsection (a) of
this section applies to every judgment, decree and claim, including
those now pending, from and after the effective date of this
amendment.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to equalize the interest
rate at six percent for both prejudgment interest and post-judgment
interest as set forth in §47-6-5a.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.