STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3381

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2347

       H.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2347, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO METAL,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to clarify that any person who violates the law on requiring scrap dealers to obtain a license or the law on requiring scrap dealers to obtain a written statement from the seller, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Attorney General and the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney.

     Current law may be read to require that both section 445-232 (scrap dealer licensing) and section 445-233 (written statement), Hawaii Revised Statutes, be violated before a penalty can be imposed for violation of either of them.  This concern arises from the fact that the reference to these two sections in section 445‑235, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is separated by the conjunctive "and" instead of the disjunctive "or."  This measure remedies that ambiguity by changing the "and" to "or".  In addition, this measure declares that it was never the Legislature's intent to require that both sections be violated before a penalty can be imposed for violation of either of them.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2347, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair