CHAPTER 128
APPROPRIATION - REVISED CODE COMMISSION - ENLARGING POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMISSION
AN ACT TO AMEND AND SUPPLEMENT CHAPTER 377, VOLUME 47, LAWS OF DELAWARE, ENTITLED "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' BY ENLARGING THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION AND MAKING AN APPROPRIATION THEREFOR.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That Chapter 377 of Volume 47, Laws of Delaware, is hereby amended and supplemented by adding at the end thereof the following new sections:
"Section 9. The Revised Code Commission is authorized and directed to include and give effect to in the code of laws that it is preparing all statutes of a public and general nature which may be enacted at the present session of the General Assembly.
"Section 10. The Commission is authorized and directed, in preparing a code of the public and general statutes of this State, to revise, codify and arrange the laws in such manner, under such titles and in such language as shall seem best and most appropriate to the Commission and as the nature and scope of the work may suggest, but in no case is the Commission authorized to omit, add to, amend, alter, change or vary the meaning of any existing law to be embraced in the work. The Commission is not required to follow the general scheme and plan of the Revised Code of Delaware of 1935. The Commission is authorized to eliminate statutes that are clearly obsolete in the sense that they have no remaining utility and also statutes which have been declared unconstitutional by any court from which no appeal has been taken, the decision of which is reported in the Delaware Law or Chancery Reports. Incongruities shall be resolved by the Commission in such manner as to effectuate the true legislative intent. Wherever possible, a multiplicity of statutes on the same subject shall be integrated and synthesized by the Commission. To the extent that it is feasible to do so from the standpoint of available time, the Commission is authorized to rewrite statutes in simple, direct and clear language which preserves the original intent of the Legislature.
"Section 11. The Commission is authorized and directed to include or to have included in the code a comprehensive and accurate index thereof, annotations of such decisions of Delaware and Federal Courts as have construed or otherwise considered the statutes to be included in the code, cross-reference tables or notations stating where in the code statutes dealing with related subject matter may be found, distribution tables listing the corresponding citation in the new code of each section of the Code of 1935 and of each statute enacted since 1935 of a public and general nature, repeal tables listing all statutes that will have been repealed or superseded by the new code, and such other matter as in the opinion of the Commission will improve or enhance its utility. The Commission is authorized to enter into a contract or contracts for the performance of the work mentioned in this paragraph with one or more legal publishers or with such other person, firm or corporation as in the opinion of the Commission is competent to do the work.
"Section 12. The work of revising, codifying, arranging, indexing, annotating, cross-referencing and tabulating the statutes shall be completed not later than October 1, 1952, and on or before that date the Commission shall file a copy of its work (which need not be printed) with the Governor and shall simultaneously make a report of its work to the Governor showing the work to be completed except for printing and binding.
"Section 13. The Governor is requested to convene the General Assembly in special session within twenty days after the receipt by him of the Commission's work and report for the purpose of considering and acting upon the same to the end that printed copies of the new code, if enacted at such special session, may be available to the citizens of this State at the commencement of the next biennial session of the General Assembly, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable.
"Section 14. The Commission is authorized and directed to take entire charge of, provide for and effect the printing and binding of the new code, which term, for the purpose of this chapter, is intended to include the statutes in such form as they may be enacted or approved by the General Assembly, an index thereof, annotations of court decisions, and such tables and other matter as the Commission may, in its discretion, deem appropriate and desirable to be included. The Commission shall have printed and cause to be bound with the new code the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and its Amendments, and the Constitution of the State of Delaware, Schedule and Amendments.
"The Commission is authorized and directed to determine the specifications for the printing and binding of the new code, including the selection of the kind and quality of type, paper, binding and cover and the determination of the size of the page, the number of pages per volume, the number of volumes that are to comprise the entire code and whether or not the volumes should be designed to accommodate cumulative pocket-part supplements which may be inserted in the back of each volume.
"The Commission shall, upon such specifications and conditions as it shall determine, duly and sufficiently advertise for bids for said printing and binding, and award the said printing and binding to the lowest and best qualified responsible bidder. Such bids shall be opened in the presence of the bidders or their representatives who may choose to attend. The Commission shall have the right, in the interests of perfection of printing, paper or binding of the code, or in the interests of economy to the State to reject any one or all of such bids and, if occasion shall in the judgment of the Commission require it, may readvertise for bids.
"The Commission shall cause at least 1,000 copies of the code to be printed and bound. The Commission shall ascertain how many copies of the code probably will be required to meet the immediate demand therefor and if, in the judgment of the Commission, the indicated demand requires a larger edition than 1,000 copies, the Commission is further authorized to cause to be printed and bound such additional number of copies as shall be necessary to provide for the probable immediate demand plus 500 copies to be reserved for future use or future sale.
"The Commission is authorized, in awarding a contract for the printing and binding of the new code, to grant to the printer or publisher such sales rights (exclusive or otherwise) with respect to the new code, as in the judgment of the Commission would be advantageous to the State. The contract for the printing and binding shall state expressly whether or not the printer or publisher is to have any sales rights and, if so, the nature thereof and the price or prices at which all or any copies of the code shall be sold.
"The Commission may proceed to make arrangements for and to award a contract for the printing and binding of the code even before it shall have submitted its report and filed the completed work with the Governor, if in the judgment of the Commission it shall be advisable to do so in order to insure that printed copies of the new code will be available to the citizens of this State as soon as reasonably possible after the enactment thereof by the General Assembly.
"For the purpose of said printing, the Secretary of State shall, immediately after the enactment or approval of the code by the General Assembly, verify and deliver to the Commission a copy of the code as so enacted, which shall be furnished to the Secretary of State by the Commission, and certify the same as a true copy.
"It shall be the duty and responsibility of the Commission to arrange for and to cause the code to be proof-read by comparing the printed matter with the Commission's manuscript copy.
"If the contract for the printing and binding shall not have granted to the printer the exclusive right to sell the code or shall not have fixed the sales price, the Governor shall fix the price per set at which the new code shall be sold.
"The Commission shall deliver or cause to be delivered to the Secretary of State the printed and bound copies of the code, less those, if any, which the printer has retained for sale if he has been granted sales rights.
"Section 15. The cost and expenses of said printing, binding, indexing, annotating, cross-referencing, preparing distribution and repeal tables, proof-reading and delivery to the Secretary of State shall be paid by the State Treasurer out of funds not otherwise appropriated, upon warrants signed by all of the Revised Code Commissioners and approved by the Auditor of Accounts.
"Section 16. There is hereby appropriated to the Commission, in addition to the sum appropriated in Section 8 of Chapter 377 of Volume 47, Laws of Delaware, the sum of Seventy-five Thousand Dollars ($75,000.00) for defraying the expenses of the Commission and for paying from time to time reasonable compensation to said Commissioners. The 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 up to the limit of its appropriation, 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 herein fixed."
Approved May 24, 1951.