This Act requires that a train or light engine used to move freight by railroad have a crew of at least 2 individuals. Violation of this statute subjects the railroad to a $500 fine for a first offense, and a $1,000 fine for a second or subsequent offense within 3 years of the first offense.
This concurrent resolution expresses the State of Delaware General Assembly’s concern for the loss of life in the Israel-Hamas war and calls on the legislature and the citizens of Delaware to recognize our common humanity and the shared strength of our diversity.
In 1682 or 1683, the Sussex County Court, created by William Penn, created the land grant that is the subject of this Act (“Warner Grant”). As this Act describes, the Warner Grant consists of land in and adjacent to the City of Lewes largely consisting of what is now Cape Henlopen State Park. As the United States District Court for Delaware would later find, the Warner Grant created a “right of common” held in trust for the benefit the people of Lewes and Sussex County. See United States v. 1,010.8 Acres Situate in Sussex County, 56 F. Supp. 120 (D. Del. 1944). In the early 1970s, nearly 300 years after the Warner Grant was created, a dispute arose over the meaning of the Warner Grant and who had authority to enforce the right of common under the Warner Grant when the City of Lewes leased land in the Warner Grant to a real estate company for the purpose of constructing a housing development. Lawsuits were filed by members of the public and the Attorney General. Eventually, the 130th General Assembly settled that dispute by enacting Chapter 108 of Volume 62 of the Laws of Delaware to establish the Warner Grant Trust (“Trust”) and set the boundaries of the lands in the Trust, known as the Warner Grant Trust Lands (“Lands”). In light of recent proposals for the use of the Lands, the 152nd General Assembly finds that clarification is necessary as to the permitted uses of the Lands and as to how future disputes are to be litigated. To that end, this Act does all of the following: (1) Makes clear that the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (“Department”), as trustee of the Warner Grant Trust Lands, must administer the Lands for the public benefit and adhering to 3 governing priorities: (1) conservation, (2) nature education, and (3) public recreation. (2) Makes clear that the Department must administer the Lands so that a private benefit or financial gain to a for-profit enterprise or public-private partnership is not detrimental to the public benefit. (3) Provides that the Court of Chancery has original jurisdiction over disputes regarding the Lands. (4) Provides that the Attorney General must represent Delawareans in the enforcement of the Trust and, if the Attorney General declines to do so, any resident of Sussex County may sue to enforce the Trust and the Court of Chancery must award attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs who prevail in enforcing the Trust. (5) Includes a provision in the Delaware Code, § 4523 of Title 7, referencing the Department’s duties under this Act to preserve memory of this Act for future generations. Section 1 of this Act amends Chapter 108, Volume 62 of the Laws of Delaware, as amended by Chapter 99, Volume 72 of the Laws of Delaware, which contains 10 sections labelled Section 1 through Section 10. Section 2 of this Act amends the Delaware Code to create a new § 4523 of Title 7.
This bill precludes the so-called LGBTQ+ "panic" defense that seeks to partially or completely excuse or justify a defendant from full accountability for the commission of a crime on the grounds that the actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth of the victim is sufficient to explain, excuse, or justify the defendant's conduct, or contributes to or causes the defendant's mental state, or that the defendant’s reaction thereto constitutes a mental illness, mental defect, or mental disorder sufficient to excuse or justify the defendant's conduct (including under circumstances in which the victim made a nonviolent romantic or sexual advance toward the defendant or in which the defendant and the victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship). Sections 1 and 3 of this bill move the definitions for gender identity and sexual orientation currently in the hate crimes statute to the general definitions section of the Criminal Code to maintain standard definitions of these terms throughout the Criminal Code. Section 2 of this bill provides that in any prosecution or sentencing for an offense: (i) a defendant is not justified in using force against another based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth; (ii) for the purposes of determining whether there is a reasonable explanation or excuse for the existence of extreme emotional disturbance or other asserted mitigating factor or circumstance, such explanation or excuse is not reasonable if it is based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth; and (iii) a defendant does not suffer from a mental illness, mental defect, mental disorder, serious mental disorder, psychiatric disorder, or other impairment affecting or impacting the defendant’s mental state relating to any questions of intent, knowledge, capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the defendant's conduct, disturbance of the defendant's thinking, feeling or behavior, culpability, willpower to choose whether to do or refrain from doing an act, or ability to distinguish right from wrong, based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth. This bill does not preclude a defendant from availing themself of any defense permitted by the Delaware Criminal Code or other applicable Delaware law on bases other than those specifically precluded by this bill. This House Substitute No. 2 differs from the original in that it corrects the omission of the phrase “or sentencing” in § 472(a), (b), and (c).
This Act updates the crime of official misconduct to ensure appropriate accountability of public servants who abuse their positions of power and public trust. The statute establishes a grade in the penalty for the official misconduct to be commensurate to the gravity of the misconduct. In addition, this statute conforms the discrimination language to the language used in the Hate Crimes statute. It also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act will be known as the “Abuse of Power Prevention Act.”
In 2016, the General Assembly passed HB 404, the Concussion Protection in Youth Athletic Activities Act (CPYAAA). This Act clarifies the requirements of CPYAAA and enables the Division of Public Health, in consultation with the State Council for Persons with Disabilities, to promulgate regulations to broadly implement the Act. This Amendment adds the requirement for non-scholastic athletic activity organizations to develop policies and procedures for advising athletes, coaches, officials, parents, and guardians of the signs and symptoms of concussion and explaining the risk of continuing to practice or compete in athletic events or activities after sustaining a concussion, as well as providing information about returning to academic and athletic events or activities after sustaining a concussion.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year. This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 46. Like Senate Bill No. 46, this Act revises this State's missing children laws to improve search efforts, increase collaboration between law enforcement agencies, and increase public information about missing children. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 46 in that it does all of the following: (1) Removes language relating to “unemancipated minors” and instead uses the term “child”, as defined in § 302 of Title 1 of the Delaware Code, uniformly throughout Subchapter II of Chapter 85 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code. Delaware does not have emancipation of minors and anyone under the age of 18 is considered a child under our laws. (2) Includes a legal custodian as a person who can sign a dental authorization form to permit release of dental records to law-enforcement agencies. This allows the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families to authorize the release of dental records for any child in its legal custody. (3) Includes a legal custodian as a point of contact for law-enforcement agencies when fulfilling their duties regarding unidentified deceased persons. This allows the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families to be a point of contact and receive information for any child in its legal custody. (4) Removes the limitation on who may report a missing child and instead allows a child to be reported missing by any person. This enables schools, daycares, group homes, relatives, or persons caring for a child without legal authority to report a child missing from their care. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act expressly adds the intentional restriction of another adult’s access to economic resources resulting in a loss of financial autonomy to the definition of abuse for protection from abuse proceedings. This Act also specifies that tangible property of the petitioner includes legal documents belonging to the petitioner. In addition, this Act codifies the existing practice of Family Court to allow relief by ordering respondents to return specific legal documents. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Due to continuing concerns over the negative health effects secondhand smoke will have on the youth of Delaware, this bill adds Smoking Restrictions within vehicles if a person under the age of eighteen (18) is in the vehicle. Also, it makes clear that a police officer will not stop or detain a car solely on suspicion of having violated this Statute.
This Act enables Sussex County to use the Voluntary School Assessment (VSA) to address the impact of residential development on school capacity. The following is a summary of the Act’s 3 sections: Section 1 of the Act amends Chapter 69 of Title 9 of the Delaware code pertaining to zoning in Sussex County. It amends § 6961 of Title 9 to add a new subsection (d) that enables Sussex County to require residential developers to provide a certification from the Secretary of the Department of Education concerning school capacity prior to recording a major record subdivision plan; however, no certification is required where the proposed development is (i) restricted to providing housing predominantly for individuals 55 years of age or older; (ii) for low income housing; or (iii) the developer has pledged to pay a VSA. Section 1 also amends § 6961 to provide that to the extent Sussex County has adopted or adopts any regulations linking or restricting residential developments to school capacity, such regulations are preempted. Section 2 of the Act amends § 842 of Title 22 of the Delaware code, pertaining to school capacity for municipal corporations, to remove specific references to New Castle County. It also revises § 842 to provide that subsection (b) applies to all new residential subdivision plans over 5 units in size for lands located within or annexed into a municipality on or after July 1, 1992; previously, subsection (b) only applied to such lands annexed into a municipality after July 1, 1992. Section 3 of the Act amends § 103 of Title 14 of the Delaware code to conform with the changes to the code contained in Section 1 of this Act, to provide that in calculating the VSA, the average cost per child shall take into account offsite roadway improvements required by the state transportation department, and to remove a specific reference to New Castle County.
