The Maine House introduced Legislative Draft 1384 on April 8, 2013 to enact the 2010 Amendments to UCC Article 9. The bill, known both as LD 1384 and HP 985, adopts the Alternative B Safe Harbor for the sufficiency of individual debtor names in § 9-503(a)(4) and provides the uniform effective date of July 1, 2013.
There are a couple non-uniform deviations from the official text of the 2010 Amendments that may be of concern. The first concerns the forms safe harbor in § 9-521. As introduced, LD 1384 requires a filing office to accept forms approved by IACA or adopted by rule. It does not incorporate the forms set forth in the official text. If read broadly, this deviation would require a filing office to accept all prior versions of IACA forms, including those from the 1998 official text of Revised Article 9, because they have been approved by IACA. Conversely, a narrow reading could lead to the filing office refusing to accept prior versions, including the new safe harbor forms, when IACA adopts updated forms in the future.
The other deviation from the official text occurs in § 9-503(a)(2). Instead of following the official text, which refers to the “personal representative of the decedent,” the language in the bill as introduced refers to the “general representative of the decedent.” That is likely a non-substantive change. However, related sections of the bill continue to use the term “personal representative.”
CSC will continue to track all UCC Article 9 legislation and provide update of any significant developments. Additional resources on the 2010 Amendments to UCC Article 9, including legislative status charts, are available at http://csctransactionwatch.com/amendments/.
If you have questions or need more information on Article 9 legislation, please contact Paul Hodnefield, Associate General Counsel, at phodnefi@cscinfo.com or 800-927-9801, ext. 62375.