Email WV Code

Email: Chapter 32A, Article 1

ARTICLE 1. LAND SALES; FALSE ADVERTISING.

§32A-1-1. Filing and registration with respect to lands prerequisite to sale, etc., within state.

No person, partnership or corporation shall sell or offer for sale, in this state, any lands, situate outside this state, which are to be planted in trees or vines or divided into town or suburban lots, or any unimproved or undeveloped lands, or any lands, including cemetery lots, cemetery privileges, burial rights or privileges, the value of which materially depends on the future performance of any stipulation or promise to furnish irrigation, transportation facilities, streets, sidewalks, sewers, gas, electricity or other value enhancing utility or improvement of any undivided part or share, whether an aliquot part or a part designated on any other basis, or any mine, mineral claim, or other estate in any mine, or in the lands containing the same, regardless of where located or situated, the value of which materially depends on the future discovery or development and production of the minerals, without first having filed with the commissioner of securities (which office is established in chapter thirty-two of this code) a detailed description of the property which, or any interest or part or share of which, is proposed to be sold, and such information with respect to the value thereof, and the title to such property or properties as the commissioner of securities shall require, and without causing such property to be registered by the commissioner of securities in the manner provided for the registration of securities by qualification under section three hundred four, article three, chapter thirty-two of this code; and no person shall sell or offer any such property for sale until he has been registered as a salesman by the commissioner of securities under the provisions for registering agents contained in article two, chapter thirty-two of this code. All of the provisions contained in chapter thirty-two of this code governing the registration of securities by qualification and the registration of agents and the penalties provided therein shall apply to the registration of properties and salesmen under this article: Provided, That nothing contained in this article shall prevent any bona fide owner of any such land, mine, mining lease, mineral claim or other property, or interest therein, from selling the same on his own account and not as a part, or in furtherance, of any promotion or development to the public.

§32A-1-2. False advertising prohibited; penalty.

Any person or corporation who, with intent to sell or in anywise dispose of merchandise, securities, service or anything offered by such person or corporation, directly or indirectly, to the public for sale or distribution, or with intent to increase the consumption thereof, or to induce the public in any manner to enter into any obligation relating thereto, or to acquire title thereto, or any interest therein, makes, publishes, disseminates, circulates or places before the public, or causes, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated or placed before the public in this state, in a newspaper or other publication, or in the form of a book, notice, handbill, poster, blueprint, map, bill, tag, label, circular, pamphlet, or letter, or by way of radio or television, or in any other way, an advertisement of any sort regarding merchandise, securities, service, land, lot or anything so offered to the public, which advertisement contains any promise, assertion, representation or statement of fact which is untrue, deceptive or misleading, with knowledge that the same was untrue, deceptive or misleading, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $2,000, or imprisoned in the county jail not more than six months, or both fined and imprisoned.

§32A-1-3. Indictment need not negative exceptions.

In any indictment for violation of any provision of this article, it shall not be necessary to negative any exception contained in any proviso or elsewhere in this article.