Opinion ID: 1204890
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Severability of Statutory Provisions

Text: The appellant argues that the circuit court improperly declared the entire West Virginia Trust Fund Act unconstitutional. The appellant argues that we should use the least intrusive remedy and sever any provisions of the Act which we find to be unconstitutional and void. W.Va.Code, 2-2-10(cc) [1989] provides: Unless there is a provision in a section, article or chapter of this code specifying that the provisions thereof shall not be severable, the provisions of every section, article or chapter of this code, whether enacted before or subsequent to the effective date of this subdivision, shall be severable so that if any provision of any such section, article or chapter is held to be unconstitutional or void, the remaining provisions of such section, article or chapter shall remain valid, unless the court finds the valid provisions are so essentially and inseparably connected with, and so dependent upon, the unconstitutional or void provision that the court cannot presume the Legislature would have enacted the remaining valid provisions without the unconstitutional or void one, or unless the court finds the remaining valid provisions, standing alone, are incomplete and are incapable of being executed in accordance with the legislative intent[.] We agree with the abstract principle that there may conceivably be investments that could constitutionally be made by Trust Fund, Inc. However, appellant Trust Fund, Inc., fails to identify which specific statutory provisions could be cleanly severed from the Act, and we decline to assume a legislative role, rummaging through the entire Act, patching together sentences which we feel would reach a constitutional result. Further, the entire Act was introduced and passed by the Legislature to permit the indirect investment of state moneys in corporate equities, and we cannot conceive how to separate this unconstitutional goal from the Act. Accordingly, we find that the West Virginia Trust Fund Act, W.Va.Code, 44-6B-1 to -12 [1996], is unconstitutional as it violates the unconditional constitutional proscription against the State becoming a joint owner or stockholder in any corporation or association.