Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 377

APPROPRIATION

REVISED CODE COMMISSION

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF A COMMISSION TO REVISE THE PUBLIC LAWS OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE AND CODIFY AND ARRANGE THE SAME; APPROPRIATION FOR EXPENSE THEREOF.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

Section 1. That a commission, consisting of three commissioners, one of whom shall be a resident of each county in this State, who shall be citizens of the State of Delaware and attorneys of recognized ability and knowledge of State Legislation, to be known as The Revised Code Commission, be and the same is hereby created with authority and power to revise the public laws of the State of Delaware and codify and arrange the same.

Section 2. That the Governor be and he is hereby authorized to select, at his earliest convenience, within the limitations of Section 1 of this Act, three commissioners to constitute the said The Revised Code Commission.

In the event of any vacancy in said Commission before the completion of its work, occurring by death, resignation or otherwise, such vacancy shall be filled by like appointment of the Governor.

Section 3. That the said Commission is authorized and directed to revise, codify and arrange in a systematic and condensed form, all the statute laws of the State of Delaware of a public and general nature, which shall consist of the laws found in the Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, and all amendments thereto made both at the present and past sessions of the General Assembly, together with such additional statutes of a public and genera' nature as have been enacted since the publication of the

said Code of 1935 and such as may be enacted at the present session of the. General Assembly, so as to compress the whole into the smallest practical volume.

Section 4. That the said Commission is authorized and directed to revise, codify and arrange the said laws in such manner, under such titles and in such language as to the said Commission shall seem best and as the nature and scope of the work may suggest, following as near as practically possible the general scheme and plan of the said Code of 1935, but in no case is the said Commission authorized to omit, add to, amend, alter, change or vary the meaning of any existing law to be embraced in said work.

Section 5. That the said Commission is authorized to omit enactments that are redundant and have ceased to have any effect on existing rights and remedies, to reject superfluous words, to condense into as concise and comprehensive form as is consistent with a full, clear and exact expression of the will of the Legislature, all circuitous, tautological and ambiguous phraseology, and in a separate report to be made to the next biennial session of the General Assembly, to suggest any mistakes, omissions, inconsistencies and imperfections that may appear in the laws to be revised, codified and arranged in accordance with the provisions of this Act, and the manner in which they may be corrected, supplied and amended by act of the General Assembly.

Section 6. That the laws embraced within the said Code, as revised, codified and arranged by the said Commission, shall be comprehensively and accurately indexed.

Section 7. That the said The Revised Code Commission, in addition to the separate report hereinbefore referred to in Section 5 of this Act, shall make a full and complete report of its work to the next biennial session of the General Assembly, showing the work as completed. The said report shall further contain an accurate itemized statement of the expenses and disbursements of the said Commission, accompanied with vouchers therefor.

Section 8. That the total cost to the State of Delaware shall not exceed the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) and

the said Commission is authorized to draw orders, from time to time, signed by all of the commissioners, upon the State Treasurer for such sum or sums as shall be necessary for defraying its expenses and for paying from time to time reasonable compensation to the said Commissioners, and the State Treasurer, when drawn upon by such orders, shall pay the same out of any money in the general fund of the State Treasury not otherwise appropriated, not exceeding the limit fixed as aforesaid.

Approved June 30, 1949