Senate Bill 2814

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 97-19-51, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT FAILURE TO PAY OVER PROCEEDS OF A SALE ON CONSIGNMENT TO THE CONSIGNOR MAY CONSTITUTE FALSE PRETENSES; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 97-19-51, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

97-19-51. (1) If any person shall sell, barter, or exchange or mortgage, or give deed of trust on, any property, real or personal, which he had before sold, bartered, or exchanged, or obligated himself to sell, barter, or exchange, or which he had mortgaged, or in any manner encumbered, or on which he knows there is a lien of any kind by contract or by law, without informing the person to whom he so sells, barters, exchanges, or bargains, or mortgages or gives deed of trust on it, of the exact state of the property as affected by said acts or of the lien or encumbrance thereon, he shall be guilty of obtaining under false pretenses whatever he received from the person dealing with him, and shall, on conviction, be punished therefor, as for obtaining goods under false pretenses.

(2) If any person shall sell, barter or exchange any personal property on consignment from another without informing the person to whom he so sells, barters or exchanges of the exact state of the property as affected by said acts or of the true ownership thereof, he shall be guilty of obtaining under false pretenses whatever he received from the person dealing with him, and shall, on conviction, be punished therefor, as for obtaining goods under false pretenses. It is a defense to prosecution under this subsection (2) if the person shall have paid over to the consignor of the personal property the full money amount owed from the proceeds of the sale according to any written contract between them.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2004.