MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Appropriations

By: Representative Moody

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 1-1-11, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION SERVICES SHALL BE PROVIDED WITH FOUR SETS OF THE MISSISSIPPI CODE; TO PROVIDE THAT THE MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972 ANNOTATED THAT IS PUBLISHED BY THE COMPANY WITH WHICH THE JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON COMPILATION, REVISION AND PUBLICATION OF LEGISLATION HAS CONTRACTED IS THE OFFICIAL CODE OF THE PUBLIC STATUTE LAWS OF THE STATE, AND SHALL BE RECOGNIZED AS THE OFFICIAL CODE AND CONSIDERED AS EVIDENCE OF THE PUBLIC STATUTE LAWS OF THE STATE IN ALL STATE COURTS AND BY ALL PUBLIC OFFICERS AND AGENCIES; TO PROHIBIT ANY PUBLISHER OF A CODE OF THE PUBLIC STATUTE LAWS OF THE STATE, OTHER THAN THE PUBLISHER OF THE OFFICIAL CODE, FROM USING CERTAIN WORDS AS THE NAME OR TITLE OF THE CODE THAT IS PUBLISHED; TO REPEAL SECTION 1-1-15, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY TO THE PRECEDING PROVISIONS; TO AMEND SECTION 1-1-33, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY TO SECTION 1-1-11, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 1-1-11, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

1-1-11. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, the Joint Committee on Compilation, Revision and Publication of Legislation shall distribute or provide for the distribution of the sets of the compilation of the Mississippi Code of 1972 purchased by the state as follows:

Fifty-six (56) sets to the Mississippi House of Representatives and forty (40) sets to the Mississippi Senate for the use of the Legislative Reference Bureau, Legislative Services Offices, staffs and committees thereof.

Ten (10) sets to the Governor's Office; nine (9) sets to the Secretary of State; and twenty (20) sets to the Auditor's Office.

One (1) set to each of the following: the Lieutenant Governor; each member of the Legislature; the Treasurer; each district attorney; each county attorney; each judge of the Court of Appeals and each judge of the Supreme, circuit, chancery, county, family, justice and municipal courts; each Mississippi Senator and Mississippi Representative in Congress; State Superintendent of Education; Director of the Department of Finance and Administration; six (6) sets to the Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) Committee, two (2) sets to the Director of the Legislative Budget Office; the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce; each Mississippi Transportation Commissioner; six (6) sets to the Department of Corrections; the Insurance Commissioner; the Clerk of the Supreme Court; the State Board of Health; each circuit clerk; each chancery clerk in the state for the use of the chancery clerk and the board of supervisors; each sheriff in the state for the use of his office and the county officers; and each county for the county library (an additional set for each of the last three (3) to be given in counties having two (2) judicial districts).

Two (2) sets to the Department of Archives and History; two (2) sets to the State Soil and Water Conservation Commission; sixty-eight (68) sets to the Attorney General's Office; six (6) sets to the Public Service Commission; four (4) sets to the Public Utilities Staff; thirty-six (36) sets to the State Tax Commission; two (2) sets to the State Personnel Board; six (6) sets to the State Law Library; one (1) set to the Library of Congress; ten (10) sets to the University of Mississippi Law School; one (1) set each to the Mississippi School for the Deaf and the Mississippi School for the Blind; one (1) set each to the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women, University of Southern Mississippi, Delta State University, Alcorn State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi Valley State University, and the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning; and one (1) set to the Supreme Court judges' conference room. In furtherance of the State Library's reciprocal program of code exchange with libraries of the several states, the joint committee shall, at the direction and only upon the written request of the State Librarian, distribute or provide for the distribution of sets of the code to such libraries.

One (1) set to each state junior or community college; three (3) sets to the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks; two (2) sets to the Department of Environmental Quality; two (2) sets to the Department of Marine Resources; four (4) sets to the State Department of Rehabilitation Services; and seven (7) sets to the Department of Human Services. One (1) set to each of the following: State Textbook Procurement Commission; University Medical Center; State Library Commission; Department of Agriculture and Commerce; Forestry Commission; and seventeen (17) sets to the Department of Public Safety. Also, one (1) set to each of the following: Adjutant General, Department of Economic and Community Development, Department of Banking and Consumer Finance, Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management, the State Educational Finance Commission, the Mississippi Board of Vocational and Technical Education, Division of Medicaid, State Board of Mental Health, and Department of Youth Services.

The joint committee is authorized to distribute or provide for the distribution of additional sets of the Mississippi Code, not to exceed three (3) sets, to the office of each district attorney for the use of his assistants.

The joint committee shall provide to the Mississippi House of Representatives and the Mississippi Senate the annual supplements to the Mississippi Code of 1972 for each set of the code maintained by the House and Senate.

The set of the Mississippi Code of 1972 to be provided to each member of the Legislature shall be provided unless specifically waived by such legislator in writing.

An elected or appointed officeholder in the State of Mississippi, except for a member of the Legislature, shall deliver to his successor in office, or to the joint committee if there is no successor, the set of the Mississippi Code of 1972 provided the officeholder under this section.

Before the joint committee delivers or provides for delivery of a copy of the Mississippi Code of 1972 to an individual officeholder, the joint committee shall prepare and submit a written agreement to the officeholder. The agreement shall, among other provisions, state that the code is the property of the State of Mississippi, that it shall be transferred to the officeholder's successor in office, that the officeholder has an obligation to make such transfer and that the officeholder shall be responsible for the failure to deliver the code and for any damage or destruction to the code, normal wear and tear excepted. The joint committee shall execute the agreement and forward it to the officeholder for execution. The joint committee shall not deliver or provide for delivery of the code to the officeholder until the executed agreement is received by the committee. The joint committee may include in the agreement such other provisions as it may deem reasonable and necessary. In addition to damages or any other remedy for not transferring a set of the code to his successor, an officeholder who does not transfer his set of the code shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, pay a fine of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00). Upon request of the joint committee, the Attorney General shall assist the joint committee in taking such actions as necessary to require an officeholder to transfer the set of code provided under this section to his successor, or to the joint committee if there is no successor, and to recover reimbursement or damages from any officeholder for the loss of or damage or destruction to any volumes of the set of the code provided under this section, other than normal wear and tear.

Replacement of missing, damaged or destroyed sets or volumes of the code provided by this chapter may be obtained from the code publisher through the joint committee at the established state cost, the cost to be borne by the recipient.

No more than one (1) set of the Mississippi Code of 1972 shall be furnished to any one (1) individual, regardless of the office or offices he may hold.

(2) The joint committee, in its discretion, may determine whether electronic access to the Mississippi Code of 1972 is available and a sufficient substitute for actual bound volumes of the code and, if so, may omit furnishing any one or more sets otherwise required by this section.

SECTION 2. (1) The Mississippi Code of 1972 Annotated, as amended, modified and revised from time to time, that is published by the company with which the Joint Legislative Committee on Compilation, Revision and Publication of Legislation has contracted under Section 1-1-107(a):

(a) Is the official code of the public statute laws of the State of Mississippi that are enacted by the Legislature; and

(b) Shall be used, received, recognized and referred to as the official code of the public statute laws of the State of Mississippi, and shall be considered as evidence of the public statute laws of the State of Mississippi, in all courts of the state and by all public officers, offices, departments and agencies of the state and its political subdivisions, and in all other places or instances where the public statute laws of the state may come into question. However, if there is any conflict between the language of any statute as it appears in the Mississippi Code of 1972 Annotated and in the General Laws of Mississippi, the language in the General Laws shall control; and if there is any conflict between the language of any statute as it appears in the General Laws of Mississippi and in the original enrolled bills enacted by the Legislature, the language in the enrolled bills shall control.

(2) No publisher of a code of the public statute laws of the State of Mississippi, other than the publishing company with which the Joint Legislative Committee on Compilation, Revision and Publication of Legislation has contracted under Section 1-1-107(a), shall be authorized to use as the name, title or designation of the code that is published, the words "Mississippi Code of 1972," "Mississippi Code 1972," "Mississippi Code of 1972 Annotated," "Mississippi Code 1972 Annotated," "Annotated Mississippi Code of 1972," "Annotated Mississippi Code 1972," or any other combination of words containing "Code of 1972," "Code 1972" or "1972 Code." The joint committee may seek injunctive relief, or authorize the publisher of the official code to seek injunctive relief on behalf of the joint committee, against any person or entity to enforce the provisions of this subsection.

SECTION 3. Section 1-1-15, Mississippi Code of 1972, which provides that the Mississippi Code shall be recognized as the statute laws of the state, is repealed.

SECTION 4. Section 1-1-33, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

1-1-33. Where any officer has received a set of the Mississippi Code of 1972 by virtue of his office and is required by law to deliver it to his successor in office, and the officer fails to deliver it to his successor, the successor may make application to the Joint Legislative Committee on Compilation, Revision and Publication of Legislation, in writing, setting forth that fact, and the joint committee, if satisfied of the truthfulness of the application, may issue to the applicant a set of the Mississippi Code of 1972. The joint committee may consider any official application for a set of the Mississippi Code of 1972, and if the facts warrant furnishing a code or codes as applied for, it shall be furnished to the applicant.

SECTION 5. Section 1 of this act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1999. Sections 2, 3 and 4 of this act shall take effect and be in force from and after the passage of this act.