Synopsis
In January 2020, the Code Revisors provided the General Assembly with a list of potential technical corrections that they identified as they revised the Delaware Code to reflect legislation that was enacted by the 150th General Assembly in 2019 or as they reviewed titles of the Code. While technical in nature, these changes are beyond the authority of the Code Revisors to make and can only be done by the General Assembly through legislation. This Act also includes technical corrections identified outside of the list provided by the Code Revisors. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage to err on the side of caution because some of the sections of the Delaware Code being revised may require a super-majority vote under the Delaware Constitution. This Act also makes basic technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. An explanation of the changes made by each Section of the Act follows: Section 1. This Section corrects a typographical error. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the correct spelling of the name of the holiday is “Veterans Day.” Section 2. House Amendment No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 44 of the 150th General Assembly made only the first and second violations of § 904(f) of Title 4 a civil violation. However, the language added by HA 1 to SB 44 did not indicate how to classify third or subsequent violations, leading to ambiguity. This Section clarifies that a third or subsequent violation of § 904(f) of Title 4 is an unclassified misdemeanor. Section 3. This Section corrects the form of the citation to the Administrative Procedures Act in in § 903 of Title 7 because it was improperly drafted in House Bill No. 6 of the 150th General Assembly. Section 4. This Section corrects a drafting error made in House Bill No. 350 of the 150th General Assembly. As enacted, § 607A(f) of Title 11 states that the person charged with violating the section’s prohibition of chokeholds decides if other charges are filed against them. This Section revises subsection (f) to reflect the intent of HB 350, which is not to preclude other charges from being brought against a person charged under § 607A(f) of Title 11. Section 5. This Section corrects a drafting error made in House Bill No. 246 of the 150th General Assembly. The word-wrapping in HB 246 caused a phrase and a sentence that had been at the end of § 761(g) of Title 11, where it applied to current paragraphs (g)(1) to (g)(3), to become part of only (g)(3). This Section revises § 761(g) of Title 11 so that both the phrase and sentence clearly apply to paragraphs (g)(1)a. through (g)(1)c. by moving the phrase to the beginning of subsection (g) and the sentence is redesignated. Section 6. This Section corrects a drafting error in House Bill No. 77 of the 150th General Assembly. In HB 77, the second sentence of § 827 of Title 11 did not exist in the Code but was not underlined. Under § 109(d)(1) of Title 1, because the sentence was not underlined, it could not be added to the Code. HB 77 repealed “or home invasion” from the first sentence of § 827 of Title 11. This Section adds the sentence that was not underlined in HB 77 to § 827 of Title 11 because the sentence corresponds to the change HB 77 made in the first sentence, by addressing multiple offenses involving home invasion burglary. Section 7 and Section 9. These Sections change the word “person” to “individual” in § 1123 and § 1126 of Title 11, when referring to someone under the age of 21, consistent with how this change was enacted by Senate Substitute No. 1 for SB 25 of the 150th General Assembly in other sections of this chapter. Section 8. This Section revises § 1125 of Title 11 by removing references to § 1124 of Title 11 which was repealed by Senate Substitute No. 1 for SB 25 of the 150th General Assembly. Section 10. This Section corrects the name of the Division identified in § 4213 of Title 11. Section 4213 of Title 1