Chapter 1 - Common Law, Statutes And Rules Of Construction
CHAPTER 1 - COMMON LAW, STATUTES AND RULES OF CONSTRUCTION
8-1-101. Adoption of common law.
Thecommon law of England as modified by judicial decisions, so far as the same isof a general nature and not inapplicable, and all declaratory or remedial actsor statutes made in aid of, or to supply the defects of the common law prior tothe fourth year of James the First (excepting the second section of the sixthchapter of forty-third Elizabeth, the eighth chapter of thirteenth Elizabethand ninth chapter of thirty-seventh Henry Eighth) and which are of a generalnature and not local to England, are the rule of decision in this state whennot inconsistent with the laws thereof, and are considered as of full forceuntil repealed by legislative authority.
8-1-102. Definitions.
(a) As used in the statutes unless the legislature clearlyspecifies a different meaning or interpretation or the context clearly requiresa different meaning:
(i) "Adult" means a person who is not a minor;
(ii) "Bond" includes an undertaking;
(iii) When used in a context denoting age:
(A) "Majority" means that period of time when aperson is an adult;
(B) "Minor" means a person who has not yet reachedthe eighteenth anniversary of his birth;
(C) "Minority" means that period of time when aperson is a minor.
(iv) "Month" means a calendar month, and"year" means a calendar year; the word "year" is equivalentto the words, "year of our Lord";
(v) "Oath" includes affirmation;
(vi) "Person" includes an individual, partnership,corporation, joint stock company or any other association or entity, public or private;
(vii) "Preceding" and "following," whenreferring to sections in statutes, mean the sections next preceding or nextfollowing that in which the words occur, unless some other section isdesignated;
(viii) "Will" includes the words "testament"and "codicil";
(ix) "Written" and "in writing" includeprinting, lithographing or other modes of representing words and letters, butin all cases if the written signature of any person is required the properhandwriting of that person, or his mark, is intended;
(x) "District attorney" includes a county andprosecuting attorney in a county where the office of district attorney has notbeen created. This definition shall specifically not apply to W.S. 9-1-801through 9-1-811;
(xi) "State penal institution" includes the Wyomingstate penitentiary, Wyoming state penitentiary farms and camps, Wyoming women'scenter, Wyoming correctional facility, community correctional facilitiesdefined by W.S. 7-18-102(a)(i) and any other state penal institution created bylaw for the incarceration of convicted felons;
(xii) "Elected state official" means the governor,secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer and superintendent of publicinstruction;
(xiii) "Intellectual disability" means significantly subaveragegeneral intellectual functioning with concurrent deficits in adaptive behaviormanifested during the developmental period. "Intellectuallydisabled" means a person with an intellectual disability;
(xiv) "Notarial officer" means a notary public or otherofficer authorized to perform notarial acts as defined in W.S.34-26-101(b)(iii);
(xv) "Last federal census" means the last officialfederal decennial census as conducted and officially corrected by the bureau ofcensus, including any changes for boundary modifications, to become effectiveon July 1 next following the receipt of the official census figures;
(xvi) "Population" of a city, town, county, legislativedistrict or other political subdivision shall be determined by resort to thelast federal census.
8-1-103. Rules of construction for statutes.
(a) The construction of all statutes of this state shall be bythe following rules, unless that construction is plainly contrary to the intentof the legislature:
(i) Words and phrases shall be taken in their ordinary andusual sense, but technical words and phrases having a peculiar and appropriatemeaning in law shall be understood according to their technical import;
(ii) Words importing joint authority to three (3) or morepersons shall be construed as authority to a majority of those persons, unlessotherwise declared in the law giving the authority;
(iii) Reference to a numbered section, subsection, paragraph,subparagraph or other subdivision "of the statutes" and theabbreviation "W.S." when used in conjunction with a statute sectionnumber or its designation or identification means the Wyoming Statutes in theirmost recently published form including amendments to original enactments;
(iv) Words in the present tense include the future tense;
(v) Words in the plural form include the singular and words inthe singular form include the plural;
(vi) Words in the masculine gender include the feminine andneuter genders;
(vii) Any uniform act shall be interpreted and construed toeffectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law of those states whichenact it;
(viii) If any provision of any act enacted by the Wyominglegislature or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid,the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the actwhich can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and tothis end the provisions of any such act are severable;
(ix) Reference to legislative salary, per diem or compensationin any statute establishing the amount of salary, per diem or compensation tobe paid a person who is not a legislator, shall be deemed a reference only tothe rate of legislative salary, per diem or compensation set by statute andshall not be construed to authorize the payment of salary for meetingpreparation days as provided for legislators under W.S. 28-5-101(e)(iii) or thepayment of salary for travel days provided for legislators under W.S.28-5-101(e)(iv).
8-1-104. Identification of laws amended or repealed in amending orrepealing acts.
Inamending, altering or repealing any of the laws of Wyoming, it is sufficient toidentify each of the laws to be so amended, altered or repealed by designatingthe particular section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph or othersubdivision of the statutes affected by the appropriate number or letter, or bythe appropriate chapter and section of a session law if the law to be amended,altered or repealed is not a numbered statute, and it is not necessary to referby title or otherwise to the original legislative enactment, or amendmentthereof, to be so affected. Each bill for an act to amend, alter or repeal anylaws in effect, but not yet published, shall refer to the laws by their titleand the date of approval by the governor. Nothing in this section shall beconstrued as altering any rule or requirement that any portion of an enactmentbeing amended shall be set forth in full.
8-1-105. Identification and designation of sections, subsections andother divisions of bills; duty to insert; method.
(a) Each section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, indentedclause or other subdivision of every bill for any act, memorial or resolutionwhich may be introduced in either house of the legislature shall be appropriatelyand systematically identified and designated by number or letter before thebill is introduced. The legislative service office shall select and insert theidentification and designation numbers and letters, whenever needed. Inarranging and furnishing copies of the laws passed at each session of thelegislature for the printer of the session laws or the Wyoming statutes, thelegislative service office shall select and insert the appropriate andsystematic identification and designation numbers and letters.
(b) If any bill is for amendment of a prior enactment in whichsections, subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs and other subdivisions areappropriately identified and designated according to a consistent pattern orsystem, the identification and designation of portions of the bill may conformto that pattern or system, but otherwise shall be accomplished in accordancewith the following rules, as nearly as practicable:
(i) The first or only section in a bill shall be identified assection 1, and any following sections shall be identified by Arabic numerals insequence;
(ii) Statute sections within a bill shall be identified by theappropriate title, chapter and section number as: 8-1-105;
(iii) Subsections (divisions of sections) shall be identified bylower case letters in parentheses as: (a), (b), (c), etc.;
(iv) Paragraphs (divisions of subsections) shall be identifiedby lower case Roman numerals in parentheses, as: (i), (ii), (iii), etc.;
(v) Subparagraphs (divisions of paragraphs) shall be identifiedby upper case letters in parentheses, as: (A), (B), (C), etc.;
(vi) Subdivisions of subparagraphs shall be identified by uppercase Roman numerals in parentheses, and any smaller subdivisions shall beidentified in accordance with the pattern and system established by thissubsection, again starting with Arabic numerals.
(c) The legislative service office may also insert appropriatestatute section numbers and section headnotes in a bill for an act. However,statute numbers and headnotes are for reference, identification, and tofacilitate preparation of copy for printing only, and do not constitute anypart of the substantive law of the enactment. The legislative service officemay change statute section numbers or headnotes before or after passage of theact as necessary to correct errors or conform statute numbers or headnotes toreflect amendments made by the legislature to the text of the bill.
8-1-106. Effect of repeal of repealing law.
Ifany law is repealed which repealed a former law, the former law is not therebyrevived unless it is expressly provided.
8-1-107. Effect of amendment or repeal on pending actions.
Ifa statute is repealed or amended, the repeal or amendment does not affectpending actions, prosecutions or proceedings, civil or criminal. If the repealor amendment relates to the remedy, it does not affect pending actions,prosecutions or proceedings, unless so expressed, nor shall any repeal oramendment affect causes of action, prosecutions or proceedings existing at thetime of the amendment or repeal, unless otherwise expressly provided in theamending or repealing act.
8-1-108. When laws take effect.
Everylaw takes effect ninety (90) days after the adjournment of the session of thelegislature at which it was enacted, unless a different effective date isspecified therein.
8-1-109. Payment of fines and penalties.
Unless otherwise specifically provided by law, all civil oradministrative fines or penalties collected under the Wyoming statutes shall bepaid over to the state treasurer to be credited to the public school fund ofthe county in which the violation for which the fine or penalty was imposedoccurred.