1.12.025 - Construction of multiple amendments to statutes -- Publication -- Decodification of repealed sections.

Construction of multiple amendments to statutes — Publication — Decodification of repealed sections.

(1) If at any session of the legislature there are enacted two or more acts amending the same section of the session laws or of the official code, each amendment without reference to the others, each act shall be given effect to the extent that the amendments do not conflict in purpose, otherwise the act last filed in the office of the secretary of state in point of time, shall control: PROVIDED, That if one or more special sessions of the same legislature shall follow any regular session, this rule of construction shall apply to the laws enacted at either, both, any, or all of such sessions.

     (2) If a section of the session laws or of the official code is amended without reference to another amendment of the same section, the code reviser, in consultation with the statute law committee, may publish the section in the official code with all amendments incorporated therein. The publication of the section under this subsection shall occur only if the statute law committee determines that the amendments do not conflict in purpose or effect. Sections so published constitute prima facie evidence of the law but shall not be construed as changing the meaning of any such law.

     The code reviser, in consultation with the statute law committee, may decodify a section of the official code which was repealed without reference to an amendment to the section. The decodification of the section shall occur only if the statute law committee determines that the decodification does not conflict with the purpose of the amendment. Any decision of the code reviser, in consultation with the statute law committee, to incorporate amendments in the same section or to decodify a section which was both repealed and amended in the same session shall be clearly noted in the revised code of Washington.

     If any conflict arises in the interpretation of a section published or decodified under this subsection, the session law sections shall control.

[1983 c 244 § 1; 1980 c 87 § 2; 1974 ex.s. c 87 § 1; 1969 ex.s. c 240 § 1; 1955 c 162 § 1.]