If any corporation, company, firm or person shall coerce or compel, or attempt to coerce or compel, an employee in its, their or his employment to purchase goods or supplies in payment of wages due him or to become due him or otherwise, from any corporation, company, firm or person, such first named corporation, company, firm or person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in the next preceding section. And if any such corporation, company, firm or person shall, directly or indirectly, sell to any such employee in payment of wages due or to become due him or otherwise, goods or supplies at prices higher than the reasonable or current market value thereof at cash, such corporation, company, firm or person shall be liable to such employee, in a civil action, in double the amount of the charges made and paid for such goods or supplies, in excess of the reasonable or correct value thereof in cash.
W. Va. Code § 21-5-5
Coercion of employees to purchase merchandise in payment of wages; sale of merchandise for more than prevailing cash value
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case 203 W. Va. 111 - Tudor v. Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc. (1997)
Most recently applied in 138 F. Supp. 3d 709 - Dalton v. Omnicare, Inc. (October 2015)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: West Virginia Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain West Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.