Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 25, June 22, 2024
Section 21.35 - Obsolete statutes(a)Background.-Statutory provisions are sometimes enacted to require or encourage a social change, which thereafter becomes an accepted and unquestioned part of the foundation of our governmental or social system. When that point has been reached it is no longer necessary to continue the statute in force. Thus, 1 Pa.C.S. § 1978 (relating to repeal as obsolete does not affect substantive rights) provides that whenever a statute which created a personal or property right in derogation of the common law is repealed as obsolete or by a code which does not contain an express provision with respect to such personal or property right, the repeal does not revive the prior inconsistent common law rule, but the repeal is to be construed as a recognition by the General Assembly that such personal or property right has been received into and has become a part of the common law, that is, nonstatutory law of this Commonwealth. For example, a statute is enacted in 1919 providing that women, married and single, shall have the same rights as men to be incorporators, stockholders, officers and directors of corporations for profit. The provision is incorporated into the Business Corporation Law and the Banking Code of 1933, and the 1919 statute is repealed as to such corporations. The provision is omitted as obsolete from the Banking Code of 1965 and is repealed as obsolete from the Business Corporation Law in 1968. The equal rights of women in business and banking corporations are a part of the common law of this Commonwealth.(b)General rule.-When drafting a revision which encompasses prior statutory civil provisions which merely state obvious principles of law which would be incontestable in modern society even in the absence of the statutory provision, the unnecessary language is omitted as obsolete.