Senate Bill No. 55
(By Senator Humphreys)
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[Introduced January 20, 1994; referred to the Committee
on Banking and Insurance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section nine, article eight, chapter
thirty-six of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to money order
abandonment; and establishing the time period for a
presumption of abandonment of money orders as seven years.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section nine, article eight, chapter thirty-six of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8. UNIFORM DISPOSITION OF UNCLAIMED PROPERTY ACT.
§36-8-9. Miscellaneous personal property held for another
person; exception; prohibiting the levying of charges on
inactive savings account.
(a) All personal property not otherwise covered by this
article, including any income or increment thereon and after
deducting any lawful charges, that is held or owing in this state
in the ordinary course of the holder's business and has remainedunclaimed by the owner for more than five years after it became
payable or distributable is presumed abandoned:
Provided, That
this section shall not apply to such property held or owing by a
utility prior to the year one thousand nine hundred fifty-seven:
Provided, however, That notwithstanding the provisions of section
two of this article, no banking or other financial organization
or institution shall, after the effective date of this section,
demand, collect, charge or contract to receive any charge due to
dormancy or inactivity on any interest bearing savings or time
deposit for any period of time prior to the withdrawal of such
funds by the depositor, his personal agent or representative, or
the accrual under this article of the right of the state to
deposit or sell as abandoned property any such deposit. For
purposes of this proviso, any interest bearing savings or time
deposit shall be deemed to be dormant or inactive if the
depositor, his personal agent or representative has not within
the immediately preceding two years increased or decreased the
amount of the deposit.
(b) Any amount held by any organization for the payment of
a money order on which such organization is directly liable shall
be presumed abandoned if such amount is held or owing for payment
of a money order which may have been outstanding for more than
seven years from the date of its sale.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish a time
period of seven years for a presumption of abandonment of money
orders.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.