Construction of Statutes

Miss. Code Ann. tit. 1, ch. 3
in effect

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-1 Application of chapter.

This chapter is applicable to every statute unless its general object, or the context of language construed, or other provisions of law indicate that a different meaning or application was intended from that required by this chapter.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-3 Bond.

The term “bond,” when used in any statute, shall embrace every written undertaking for the payment of money or acknowledgment of being bound for money, conditioned to be void on the performance of any duty or the occurrence of any thing therein expressed and subscribed, and delivered by the party making it, to take effect as his obligation, whether it be sealed or unsealed.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-4 Capital case, capital offense, capital crime, and capital murder.

The terms “capital case,” “capital cases,” “capital offense,” “capital offenses,” and “capital crime” when used in any statute shall denote criminal cases, offenses and crimes punishable by death or imprisonment for life in the state penitentiary. The term “capital murder” when used in any statute shall denote criminal cases, offenses and crimes punishable by death, or imprisonment for life in the state penitentiary.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-5 Crime.

The term “crime,” when used in any statute, shall mean any violation of law liable to punishment by criminal prosecution.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-7 Drugs.

The term “drugs,” when used in any statute, shall embrace all medicines for internal or external use for man or beast.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-9 Established.

The term “established” or “hereafter established” when used in any legislative act or municipal ordinance or resolution shall mean with reference to time the date at which the plant, building or structure referred to has progressed to that degree of completion as to be ready for the use intended.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-11 Felony.

The term “felony,” when used in any statute, shall mean any violation of law punished with death or confinement in the penitentiary.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-13 Fertilizers.

All substances, chemicals and compounds commonly known as commercial fertilizers, and all manures, whether natural or artificial products, except animal excrement, cotton seed, and unmixed cotton seed products.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-15 Food.

The term “food,” when used in any statute, shall embrace every article used as food or drink by man.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-17 Gender, masculine to embrace the feminine.

Words in the masculine gender shall embrace a female as well as a male, unless a contrary intention may be manifest.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-19 Infamous crime.

The term “infamous crime,” when used in any statute, shall mean offenses punished with death or confinement in the penitentiary.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-21 Infant.

The term “infant,” when used in any statute, shall include any person, male or female, under twenty-one years of age.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-23 Insurrection.

The term “insurrection,” when used in any statute, means an armed assembly of persons having intent to resist or subvert lawful authority.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-24 Intellectual disability.

The term “intellectual disability,” when used in any statute, means a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, originates before the age of eighteen (18) years, and refers to persons who were, are and continue to be diagnosed with mental retardation.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-25 Land.

The term “land,” when used in any statute, shall include all corporeal hereditaments whatever, and any interest therein, whether an estate for years or a different estate.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-26 Minimum education program, minimum program, minimum foundation program.

Wherever the phrase “minimum education program,” “minimum program” or “minimum foundation program” shall appear in the laws of this state, it shall be construed to mean the “Mississippi Adequate Education Program” created under Section 37-151-1 et seq.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-27 Minor.

The term “minor,” when used in any statute, shall include any person, male or female, under twenty-one years of age.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-29 Month.

The term “month,” when used in any statute, means a calendar month, unless a contrary intention be expressed.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-31 Navigable waters.

Except as otherwise provided in Section 27-109-1, all rivers, creeks and bayous in this state, twenty-five (25) miles in length, and having sufficient depth and width of water for thirty (30) consecutive days in the year to float a steamboat with carrying capacity of two hundred (200) bales of cotton, are navigable waters of this state and public highways.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-33 Number, singular and plural.

Words used in the singular number only, either as descriptive of persons or things, shall extend to and embrace the plural number; and words used in the plural number shall extend to and embrace the singular number, except where a contrary intention is manifest.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-35 Oath.

The term “oath,” when used in any statute, shall include the word “affirmation,” in all cases where by law an affirmation may be substituted for an oath.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-37 Offense.

The term “offense,” when used in any statute, shall mean any violation of law liable to punishment by criminal prosecution.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-39 Person.

The term “person,” when used in any statute, shall apply to artificial as well as natural persons; and when used to designate the party whose property may be the subject of offense, shall include the United States, this state, or any other state, territory, or country, and any county, city, town or village which may lawfully own property in this state; also all public and private corporations, as well as individuals.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-41 Personal property.

The term “personal property,” when used in any statute, means all tangible and intangible personal property and shall include cash, goods, deposit accounts, chattels, effects, evidences of rights of action, and all written instruments, including promissory notes, by which any pecuniary obligation, or any right, title, or interest in any real or personal estate, shall be created, acknowledged, transferred, incurred, defeated, discharged, or diminished.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-43 Promissory note.

Every promise in writing whereby any person, firm or body politic or corporate promises or agrees to pay a sum of money or acknowledges the same to be due.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-45 Property.

The term “property,” when used in any statute, includes personal property as defined in Section 1-3-41 and also every estate, interest, and right, in lands, tenements, and hereditaments.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-47 Railroad.

Every person, firm, association of persons or company, whether incorporated or not, who shall own or operate a railroad as a common carrier.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-49 State.

The term “state,” when applied to different parts of the United States, shall, when used in any statute, extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories created or recognized by congress.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-51 Stationery.

The term “stationery,” as applied to purchases for the state, includes everything properly so called.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-53 Sworn.

The term “sworn,” when used in any statute, shall include the word “affirmed,” in all cases where by law an affirmation may be substituted for an oath.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-55 United States.

The term “United States,” when used in any statute, shall include the District of Columbia and the territories, as well as the states of the union.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-57 Unsound mind.

The term “unsound mind,” when used in any statute in reference to persons, shall include persons with an intellectual disability, persons with mental illness, and persons non compos mentis.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-58 Ward.

Whenever the term “ward” is used, it shall be liberally construed and held to include any and all persons under every form of legal disability, including, but not limited to, the disabilities of minority, intellectual disability, mental illness, unsound mind, alcoholism, addiction to drugs, and convicted felons.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-61 Written.

The term “written,” when used in any statute, may include, but is not limited to, printing, engraving, and lithographing. In all cases where the signature of any person is required by law, it shall always be the proper handwriting of such person, or, in case he be unable to write, his proper mark, unless a different form of legal signature is specified in another statute.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-63 Year.

The term “year,” when used in any statute, means a calendar year, unless a contrary intention be expressed.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-65 Construction of terms generally.

All words and phrases contained in the statutes are used according to their common and ordinary acceptation and meaning; but technical words and phrases according to their technical meaning.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-67 How time computed when a number of days is prescribed.

When process shall be required to be served or notice given any number of days, the day of the act, event or default from which the designated period of time begins to run shall not be included. The last day of the period so computed shall be included unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday or a legal holiday, or any other day when the courthouse or the clerk’s office is in fact closed, whether with or without legal authority, in which event the period runs until the end of the next day which is not a Saturday, a Sunday, a legal holiday, or any other day when the courthouse or the clerk’s office is closed. When the period of time prescribed or allowed is less than seven (7) days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays shall be excluded in the computation.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-69 When a number of weeks is prescribed.

When publication shall be required to be made in some newspaper “for three (3) weeks,” such publication shall be made once each week for three (3) successive weeks, and the time within which the noticed party is required to act or within which the noticing party may proceed shall be computed from the first date of publication. This rule shall furnish a guide for any similar case, whether the time required be more or less than three (3) weeks.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-71 Civil law to control computation of relationship unless otherwise provided.

In each and every statute of this state heretofore enacted, and now in effect, in which the phrase “kindred within the third degree” or “relationship within the third degree” is used, and in which no other rule is applied or indicated, the civil law rule in computing relationship shall govern.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-73 Civil law to apply in construing.

The civil law rule of computing kinship or relationship is hereby adopted and shall hereafter control in this state where the computation of relationship or kinship, either by blood or marriage, is brought in question in construing any legislative enactment or statutory law in the State of Mississippi.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-75 Petitions must be signed personally by petitioners.

All petitions presented to any governing body of the State of Mississippi, or any of its subdivisions, or municipalities thereof, must be signed personally by each petitioner; otherwise, said signature shall not be counted as a valid signature of such petition.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-76 Procedures for contesting disqualification of signatures on petition requesting vote on matter affecting county or municipality.

When any petition is filed by qualified electors of a county or municipality requesting a vote on matters affecting all or any portion of a county or municipality, the certifying official shall post a list of all names disqualified from the petition and the reason for disqualification at the courthouse or city hall, as the case may be. A person whose signature has been disqualified by the certifying official may, within ten (10) days after said notice has been posted, appear before such certifying official and present evidence of his qualification accompanied by a notarized affidavit stating the reason that his signature is qualified for the petition. Based upon such information, the certifying official shall reconsider his disqualification and may allow the signature to be counted if such action appears justified.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-77 General severability provision.

If any section, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase or any part of any act passed hereafter is declared to be unconstitutional or void, or if for any reason is declared to be invalid or of no effect, the remaining sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases or parts thereof shall be in no manner affected thereby but shall remain in full force and effect. Unless the contrary intent shall clearly appear in the particular act in question, each and every act passed hereafter shall be read and construed as though the provisions of the first paragraph of this section form an integral part thereof, whether expressly set out therein or not.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-79 Treatment of amendments to same section by different bills during single legislative session; effective dates.

Except as otherwise provided in Section 1-1-109, whenever the same section of law is amended by different bills during the same session of the Legislature and the effective dates of the amendments to that section of law as specified in the bills are on different dates, the version of that section in each bill shall take effect on the effective date of the amendments to that section as specified in the bill, regardless of the dates on which the bills are approved by the Governor, become law without the Governor’s signature, or are approved by the Legislature subsequent to a veto, and at the time that each version of that section takes effect, the version taking effect shall supercede all other versions of that section that took effect earlier, unless specifically provided otherwise in any of the bills amending that section. Except as otherwise provided in Section 1-1-109, whenever the same section of law is amended by different bills during the same session of the Legislature and the effective dates of the amendments to that section of law as specified in the bills are on the same date, the version of that section in the bill that is approved by the Governor, becomes law without the Governor’s signature, or is approved by the Legislature subsequent to a veto on the latest date shall supercede all other versions of that section, unless specifically provided otherwise in any of the bills amending that section. As used in this section, “section of law” or “section” means a section of the Mississippi Code of 1972, any other valid code of statutory laws of the State of Mississippi or the session laws of the Legislature.

Miss. Code Ann. § 1-3-81 Captions of title, chapter, article, subarticle, part or section of Mississippi Code of 1972.

“Caption” means the words used to describe the substance of a title, chapter, article, subarticle, part or section of the Mississippi Code of 1972. Captions shall not constitute a part of the Mississippi Code of 1972 unless specifically so provided by law. The wording of captions that are not specifically provided to constitute law shall be editorial in nature and may be revised by a publisher of the code as the publisher deems appropriate. There shall be no exclusive right in any publisher of the code to the use of a caption that has appeared in any bill that is approved by the Governor, has become law without the Governor’s signature, or is approved by the Legislature subsequent to a veto; captions that have appeared in such a bill shall be subject to editorial revision without legislative action.

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