South Dakota Makes 30

By affixing his signature to SB 93 on March 13, 2008, Governor Mike Rounds made South Dakota the thirtieth state to enact Revised Article 1.  South Dakota's enactment, along with Kansas's (enacted last year), will take effect on July 1, 2008.

SB 93, like the versions of Revised Article 1 enacted in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia, rejects uniform R1-301.  (To date, only the U.S. Virgin Islands has adopted uniform R1-301.)

SB 93, like the versions of Revised Article 1 enacted in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia, adopts uniform R1-201(b)(20)'s definition of "good faith."  By contrast, Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Utah, and Virginia retained the pre-R1 “honesty in fact in the conduct or transaction concerned” definition in Article 1 and left 2-103(1)(b) & 2A-103(3) unchanged.

The bills currently pending in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Vermont do not appear to be making much progress.  But, you can count on your faithful correspondent to alert you if that changes.

[Keith A. Rowley]