WEST virginia legislature
2019 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 2889
By Delegates Miller, Sypolt, Angelucci, Lovejoy and Robinson
[Introduced February 7,
2019; Referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §38-3-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to judgment liens; and requiring that the last four digits of debtor’s social security number and other identifying information be included in abstracts of judgments.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 3. JUDGMENT LIENS.
§38-3-4. Abstracts of judgments; damages or penalty for failure of clerk or justice to deliver.
The clerk of every court of
this state shall, without delay, make out and deliver a duly certified abstract
of every judgment rendered by such the court, and every justice
of the peace magistrate court clerk shall, without delay, make out
and deliver a duly certified abstract of every judgment rendered by him or
her or by any other justice magistrate, the docket of which
judgment is in his or her possession and under his or her
control, to any person interested therein in the judgment who may
demand the same abstract, and pay or tender the fee therefor
for the abstract, in which abstract shall be stated: (a) The names in
full of the plaintiff or plaintiffs, and the defendant or defendants, as they
appear in the papers and proceedings in the cause, and if the defendants are
sued as partners, the individual names of such the defendants,
and also the partnership name shall be stated; (b) the amount of the judgment
and the amount of the costs, stating each separately; (c) the value of the
specific property (if any) recovered by it, and the damages, if any, for its
detention; (d) the date of the judgment and the court in which, or the justice
magistrate by whom, the judgment was rendered. The abstract required
in this section shall include, to the extent possible, the present address, the
last four digits of the Social Security number, and the date of birth of the
judgment debtor, which information shall be made available for the purpose of
properly identifying the judgment debtor. Any clerk or justice magistrate
court clerk who shall fail fails to deliver such the
abstract as herein required shall, together with the sureties in his or her
official bond, be liable to the person injured by such the failure
for the amount of his or her injury, or such injured person may, at his or
her option, recover $50 from such clerk or justice magistrate
court clerk.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that the last four digits of debtor’s social security number and other identifying information be included in abstracts of judgments.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.