CHAPTER 126

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Title 3 thereof a
new chapter numbered 30, consisting of §§ 3-709.1 through 3-709.283,
inclusive, relating to the licensing of public weighmaster; establish-
ment of their duties; providing for improper performance, and pro-
viding penalties for violations.

[S 81]

Approved February 27, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding sections numbered
3-709.1 through 3-709.23, inclusive, as follows:

_ § 8-709.1. When used in this act, unless the context requires other-
wise:

(a) The words “licensed public weighmaster” shall mean and refer
to a natural person licensed under the provisions of this Act.

(b) The word “vehicle” shall mean any device in, upon, or by which
any property, produce, commodity, or article is or may be transported or

rawn.

(c) The word “Commissioner” shall mean and refer to the State Com-
missioner of Agriculture.

§ 3-709.2. The Commissioner is authorized to enforce the provisions
of this Act and to promulgate, in the manner provided by law, such rules
an Tegulations as are deemed necessary to carry out the provisions of

is Act.

§ 3-709.3. <A citizen of the United States or a person who has declared
his intention of becoming such a citizen, who is a resident of the State
of Virginia, not less than 21 years of age, of good moral character, and
who has the ability to weigh accurately and to make correct weight
certificates, and who has received from the Commissioner a license as a
licensed public weighmaster shall be styled and authorized to act as a
licensed public weighmaster.

§ 3-709.4. Application for a license as a licensed public weighmaster
shall be made upon a form provided by the Commissioner and the applica-
tion shall furnish evidence that the applicant has the qualifications required
by § 3-709.3 of this Act.

§ 3-709.5. The Commissioner may adopt rules for determining the
qualifications of the applicant for a license as a licensed public weigh-
master. He may pass upon the qualifications of the applicant upon the basis
of the information supplied in the application, or he may examine such
applicant orally or in writing or both for the purpose of determining his
qualifications. He shall grant licenses as licensed public weighmasters to
such applicants as may be found to possess the qualifications required by
§ 3-709.3 of this Act. The Commissioner shall keep a record of all such
applications and of all licenses isued thereon.

§ 3-709.6. Before the issuance of any license as a licensed public
weighmaster, or any renewal thereof, the applicant shall pay to the Com-
missioner a fee of $10.00. Such fees shall be deposited with the State
Treasurer to be credited to a fund to be used by the Commissioner for
the administration of this Act.

§ 3-709.7. The Commissioner may, upon request and without charge,
issue a limited license as a licensed public weighmaster to any qualified
officer or employee of a city or county of this State or of a State com-
mission, board, institution, or agency, authorizing such officer or employee
to act as a licensed public weighmaster only within the scope of his of-
ficial enployment in the case of an officer or employee of a city or county
or only for and on behalf of the State commission, board, institution, or
agency in the case of an officer or employee thereof.

§ 3-709.8. Each license as licensed public weighmaster shall be issued
to expire on the thirty-first day of December of the calendar year for
which it is issued: Provided, That any such license shall be valid through
the thirty-first day of January of the next ensuing calendar year or until
issuance of the renewal license, whichever event first occurs, if the holder
thereof shall have filed a renewal application with the Commissioner on or
before the fifteenth day of December of the year for which the current
license was issued: And provided further, That any license issued on or
after the effective date of this Act and on or before the thirty-first day of
December 1962, shall be issued to expire on the thirty-first day of December
of the next ensuing calendar year. Renewal applications shall be in such
form as the Commissioner shall prescribe.

§ 3-709.9. Each licensed public weighmaster shall, before entering
upon his duties, make oath to execute faithfully his duties. The issuance of
a license as licensed public weighmaster shall not obligate the State to pay
to the licensee any compensation for his services as a licensed public weigh-
master. Each licensed public weighmaster shall, at his own expense,
provide himself with an impression seal. His name and the words ‘State
of Virginia” shall be inscribed around the outer margin of the seal and
the words “licensed public weighmaster” shall appear in the center thereof.
The seal shall be impressed upon each weight certificate issued bv a
licensed public weighmaster.

§ 3-709.10. The Commissioner shall prescribe the form of weight
certificate to be used by a licensed public weighmaster. The weight certifi-
cate shall state the date of issuance, the kind of property, produce, com-
modity, or article weighed, the name of the declared owner or agent of the
owner or of the consignee of the material weighed, the accurate weight
of the material weighed, the means by which the material was being
transported at the time it was weighed, and such other available informa-
tion as may be necessary to distinquish or identify the property, produce,
commodity, or article from others of like kind. Such weight certificate
when so made and properly signed and sealed, shall be prima facie evidence
of the accuracy of the weights shown.

§ 3-709.11. A licensed public weighmaster shall not enter on a weight
certificate issued by him any weight values but such as he has personally
determined, and he shall make no entries on a weight certificate issued by
some other person. A weight certificate shall be so prepared as to show
clearly what weight or weights were actually determined. If the certificate
form provides for the entry of gross, tare, and net weights, in any case in
which only the gross, the tare, or the net weight is determined by the
weighmaster he shall strike through or otherwise cancel the printed entries
for the weights not determined or computed. If gross and tare weights are
shown on a weight certificate and both of these were not determined on
the same scale and on the day for which the certificate is dated, the
weighmaster shall identify on the certificate the scale used for determining
each such weight and the date of each such determination.

§ 3-709.12. When making a weight determination as provided for
by this Act a licensed public weighmaster shall use a weighing device
which is of a type suitable for the weighing of the amount and kind of
material to be weighed, and which has been tested and approved for use
by a weights and measures officer of this State within a period of 12
months immediately preceding the date of the weighing.

§ 3-709.13. A licensed public weighmaster shall not use any scale
to weigh a load the value of which exceeds the nominal or rated capacity
of the scale. When the gross or tare weight of any vehicle or combination
of vehicles is to be determined, the weighing shall be performed upon
a scale having a platform of sufficient size to accommodate such vehicle
or combination of vehicles fully, completely, and as one entire unit. If a
combination of vehicles must be broken up into separate units in order
to be weighed as prescribed herein, each such separate unit shall be
entirely disconnected beforc weighing and a separate weight certificate
shall be issued for each such separate unit.

§ 3-709.14. A licensed public weighmaster shall keep and preserve
for at least one year, or for such longer period as may be specified in
the regulations authorized to be issued for the enforcement of this
Act, a legible carbon copy of each weight certificate issued by him,
which copies shall be open at all reasonable times for inspection by
any weights and measures officer of this State.

§ 3-709.15. Whenever in any other State which licenses public weigh-
masters, there is statutory authority for the recognition and acceptance
of the weight certificates issued by licensed weighmasters of this State,
the Commissioner of this State is authorized to recognize and accept
the weight certificates of such other State.

§ 3-709.16. The following persons shall not be required but shall
be permitted to obtain licenses as licensed public weighmasters: (1)
a weights and measures officer when acting within the scope of his
official duties; (2) a person weighing property, produce, commodities. or
articles which he or his employer, if any, is either buying or selling,
and (3) a person weighing property, produce, commodities, or articles
in conformity with the requirements of Federal statutes or ‘the statutes
of his State relative to warehousemen or processors.

§ 3-709.17. No person shall assume the title “licensed public weigh-
master’, or any title or similar import, perform the duties or acts to
be performed by a licensed public weighmaster under this Act, hold
himself out as a licensed public weighmaster, issue any weight certificate,
ticket, memorandum, or statement for which a fee is charged, or engage
in the full-time or part-time business of public weighing, unless he holds
a valid license as a licensed public weighmaster. ‘‘Public weighing’’, as
used in this section, shall mean the weighing for any person, upon request,
of property, produce, commodities, or articles other than those which tne
weigher or his employer, or any, is either buying or selling.

§ 3-709.18. The Commissioner is authorized to suspend or revoke
the license of any licensed public weighmaster (1) when he is satisfied,
after a hearing upon 10 days’ notice to the licensee, that the said licensee
has violated any provision of this Act or of any valid regulation of
the Commissioner affecting licensed public weighmasters, or (2) when
a licensed public weighmaster has been convicted in any court of competent
jurisdiction of violating any provision of this Act or of any regulation
issued under authority of this Act.

§ 3-709.19. Any person who requests a licensed public weighmaster
to weigh any property, produce, commodity, or article falsely or incor-
rectly, or who requests a false or incorrect weight certificate, or any
person who issues a weight certificate simulating the weight certificate
prescribed in this Act and who is not a licensed public weighmaster,
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction for the first offense
shall be punished by a fine in any sum not less than fifty dollars or more
than one hundred dollars; and upon a second or subsequent conviction
such person shall be punished by a fine in any sum not less than one
hundred dollars or more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment
for not less than thirty days or more than ninety days or by both such
fine and imprisonment.

§ 3-709.20. Any licensed public weighmaster who falsifies a weight
certificate, or who delegates his authority to any person not licensed
as a licensed public weighmaster, or who preseals a weight certificate
with his official seal before performing the act of weighing, shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a
fine in any sum not less than fifty dollars or more than five hundred
dollars or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days or more than
ninety days or by both such fine and imprisonment.

§ 3-709.21. Any person who violates any provision of this Act
or any rule or regulation promulgated pursuant thereto for which no
specific penalty has been provided shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine in any amount not less
than fifty dollars or more than one hundred dollars.

§ 3-709.22. All laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith are
hereby repealed.

§ 3-709.23. If any provision of this Act is declared unconstitutional,
or the applicability thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid,
the constitutionality of the remainder of the Act and the applicability
thereof to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected thereby.