§ 4-11A-4 — Limitation on appeal bond

The bond that any appellant who is a signatory or a successor to a signatory of the master settlement agreement or who controls or is under common control with a signatory of the master settlement agreement may be required to post to stay execution on a judgment during an appeal in any cause of action shall be set in accordance with the provisions of section fourteen, article five, chapter fifty-eight of this code and the West Virginia rules of civil procedure: Provided, That an appeal bond may not exceed $100 million for compensatory damages and all other portions of a judgment other than punitive damages and $100 million for punitive damages unless the appellee proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the appellant or appellants are purposefully dissipating or diverting assets outside of the ordinary course of its business to the effect that the ability to pay the ultimate judgment is impaired. For purposes of this section, multiple judgments resulting from cases that have been consolidated or aggregated for purposes of trial proceedings shall be treated as a single judgment.

Legislative History

2004 Reg. Sess., SB671; 2001 Reg. Sess., SB661