As used in the Legislative Disaster Succession Act [12-11-11 to 12-11-18 NMSA 1978]:
A. "attack" means any hostile action by an enemy of the United States which is intended to and physically damages citizens or property in the United States;
B. "disaster" means the damage or injury, caused by enemy attack, to persons or property in this state of such magnitude that a state of martial law is declared to exist in this state, and a disaster emergency is declared by the chief executive officer of the United States and the chief executive officer of this state;
C. "unavailable" means unable because of death, disability or presumption of death raised by absence from usual place of domicile for unknown causes, to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of a member of the legislature. The appearance of the member at a session will automatically disqualify a disaster successor, and remove the unavailability of the member;
D. "disaster successor" means a person possessing the qualifications required of a member, designated pursuant to the Legislative Disaster Succession Act, to act for a member who is unavailable during the period of disaster emergency.
History: 1953 Comp., § 4-19-3, enacted by Laws 1959, ch. 138, § 3.