MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2024 Regular Session
To: Banking and Financial Services
By: Representative Ladner
AN ACT TO DEFINE THE TERMS LEGAL TENDER AND SPECIE; TO AUTHORIZE GOLD AND SILVER COIN AS LEGAL TENDER; TO PROHIBIT SPECIE OR LEGAL TENDER FROM BEING CHARACTERIZED AS PERSONAL PROPERTY FOR TAXATION OR REGULATORY PURPOSES; TO PROVIDE THAT THE EXCHANGE OF ONE TYPE OR FORM OF LEGAL TENDER FOR ANOTHER TYPE OR FORM OF LEGAL TENDER SHALL NOT GIVE RISE TO ANY TAX LIABILITY; TO PROVIDE THAT THE PURCHASE, SALE, OR EXCHANGE OF ANY TYPE OR FORM OF SPECIE SHALL NOT GIVE RISE TO ANY TAX LIABILITY; TO PROHIBIT A PERSON FROM COMPELLING ANOTHER PERSON TO TENDER SPECIE OR TO ACCEPT SPECIE AS LEGAL TENDER; TO REQUIRE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE TO ENFORCE THIS ACT WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO A PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION; TO PROVIDE THAT SPECIE MAY BE RECOGNIZED TO PAY DEBTS; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 75-1-201, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH RELATES TO GENERAL DEFINITIONS OF THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 75-15-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH RELATES TO THE MISSISSIPPI MONEY TRANSMITTERS ACT, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 89-12-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH RELATES TO THE UNIFORM DISPOSITION OF UNCLAIMED PROPERTY ACT, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) "Legal tender" means a recognized medium of exchange for the payment of debts and taxes; and
(2) "Specie" means:
(a) Coin having gold or silver content; or
(b) Refined gold or silver bullion that is:
(i) Coined, stamped, or imprinted with its weight
and purity; and
(ii) Valued primarily based on its metal content and not its form.
(3) Specie or legal tender shall consist of:
(a) Specie coin issued by the United States government; or
(b) Other specie that a Mississippi court rules to be within state authority to make or designate as legal tender.
(4) Specie or legal tender shall not be characterized as personal property for taxation or regulatory purposes.
(5) (a) The exchange of one (1) type or form of legal tender for another type or form of legal tender shall not give rise to any tax liability.
(b) The purchase, sale, or exchange of any type or form of specie shall not give rise to any tax liability.
(6) Unless specifically provided by law or by contract, a person shall not compel another person to tender specie or to accept specie as legal tender.
(7) The Attorney General's office shall enforce this section without prejudice to a private right of action.
(8) If a valid contract expressly designates a type or form of specie as tender, then a Mississippi court asked to adjudicate the breach of such a contract shall require, as a remedy for the breach, the specific performance of tendering the type or form of specie specified in the contract.
(9) Specie may be recognized to pay debts.
SECTION 2. Section 75-1-201, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:
75-1-201. (a) Unless the context otherwise requires, words or phrases defined in this section, or in the additional definitions contained in other articles of the Uniform Commercial Code contained in other chapters of this title that apply to particular chapters or parts thereof, have the meanings stated.
(b) Subject to definitions contained in other articles of the Uniform Commercial Code that apply to particular articles or parts thereof:
(1) "Action," in the sense of a judicial proceeding, includes recoupment, counterclaim, setoff, suit in equity, and any other proceeding in which rights are determined.
(2) "Aggrieved party" means a party entitled to pursue a remedy.
(3) "Agreement," as distinguished from "contract," means the bargain of the parties in fact, as found in their language or inferred from other circumstances, including course of performance, course of dealing, or usage of trade as provided in Section 75-1-303.
(4) "Bank" means a person engaged in the business of banking and includes a savings bank, savings and loan association, credit union, and trust company.
(5) "Bearer" means a person in possession of a negotiable instrument, document of title, or certificated security that is payable to bearer or indorsed in blank.
(6) "Bill of lading" means a document evidencing the receipt of goods for shipment issued by a person engaged in the business of transporting or forwarding goods.
(7) "Branch" includes a separately incorporated foreign branch of a bank.
(8) "Burden of establishing a fact" means the burden of persuading the trier of fact that the existence of the fact is more probable than its nonexistence.
(9) "Buyer in ordinary course of business" means a person that buys goods in good faith, without knowledge that the sale violates the rights of another person in the goods, and in the ordinary course from a person, other than a pawnbroker, in the business of selling goods of that kind. A person buys goods in the ordinary course if the sale to the person comports with the usual or customary practices in the kind of business in which the seller is engaged or with the seller's own usual or customary practices. A person that sells oil, gas, or other minerals at the wellhead or minehead is a person in the business of selling goods of that kind. A buyer in ordinary course of business may buy for cash, by exchange of other property, or on secured or unsecured credit, and may acquire goods or documents of title under a preexisting contract for sale. Only a buyer that takes possession of the goods or has a right to recover the goods from the seller under Article 2 may be a buyer in ordinary course of business. 'Buyer in ordinary course of business' does not include a person that acquires goods in a transfer in bulk or as security for or in total or partial satisfaction of a money debt.
(10) "Conspicuous," with reference to a term, means so written, displayed, or presented that a reasonable person against which it is to operate ought to have noticed it. Whether a term is "conspicuous" or not is a decision for the court. Conspicuous terms include the following:
(A) A heading in capitals equal to or greater in size than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding text of the same or lesser size; and
(B) Language in the body of a record or display in larger type than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding text of the same size, or set off from surrounding text of the same size by symbols or other marks that call attention to the language.
(11) "Consumer" means an individual who enters into a transaction primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.
(12) "Contract," as distinguished from "agreement," means the total legal obligation that results from the parties' agreement as determined by the Uniform Commercial Code as supplemented by any other applicable laws.
(13) "Creditor" includes a general creditor, a secured creditor, a lien creditor, and any representative of creditors, including an assignee for the benefit of creditors, a trustee in bankruptcy, a receiver in equity, and an executor or administrator of an insolvent debtor's or assignor's estate.
(14) "Defendant" includes a person in the position of defendant in a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim.
(15) "Delivery," with respect to an instrument, document of title, or chattel paper, means voluntary transfer of possession.
(16) "Document of title" includes bill of lading, dock warrant, dock receipt, warehouse receipt or order for the delivery of goods, and also any other document which in the regular course of business or financing is treated as adequately evidencing that the person in possession of it is entitled to receive, hold, and dispose of the document and the goods it covers. To be a document of title, a document must purport to be issued by or addressed to a bailee and purport to cover goods in the bailee's possession which are either identified or are fungible portions of an identified mass.
(17) "Fault" means a default, breach, or wrongful act or omission.
(18) "Fungible goods" means:
(A) Goods of which any unit, by nature or usage of trade, is the equivalent of any other like unit; or
(B) Goods that by agreement are treated as equivalent.
(19) "Genuine" means free of forgery or counterfeiting.
(20) "Good faith," except as otherwise provided in Article 5, means honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing.
(21) "Holder" means:
(A) The person in possession of a negotiable instrument that is payable either to bearer or to an identified person that is the person in possession; or
(B) The person in possession of a document of title if the goods are deliverable either to bearer or to the order of the person in possession.
(22) "Insolvency proceeding" includes an assignment for the benefit of creditors or other proceeding intended to liquidate or rehabilitate the estate of the person involved.
(23) "Insolvent" means:
(A) Having generally ceased to pay debts in the ordinary course of business other than as a result of bona fide dispute;
(B) Being unable to pay debts as they become due; or
(C) Being insolvent within the meaning of federal bankruptcy law.
(24) "Money" means a medium of exchange currently authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government. The term includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two (2) or more countries.
(25) "Organization" means a person other than an individual.
(26) "Party," as distinguished from "third party," means a person that has engaged in a transaction or made an agreement subject to the Uniform Commercial Code.
(27) "Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, public corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity.
(28) "Present value" means the amount as of a date certain of one or more sums payable in the future, discounted to the date certain by use of either an interest rate specified by the parties if that rate is not manifestly unreasonable at the time the transaction is entered into or, if an interest rate is not so specified, a commercially reasonable rate that takes into account the facts and circumstances at the time the transaction is entered into.
(29) "Purchase" means taking by sale, lease, discount, negotiation, mortgage, pledge, lien, security interest, issue or reissue, gift, or any other voluntary transaction creating an interest in property.
(30) "Purchaser" means a person that takes by purchase.
(31) "Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
(32) "Remedy" means any remedial right to which an aggrieved party is entitled with or without resort to a tribunal.
(33) "Representative" means a person empowered to act for another, including an agent, an officer of a corporation or association, and a trustee, executor, or administrator of an estate.
(34) "Right" includes remedy.
(35) "Security interest" means an interest in personal property or fixtures which secures payment or performance of an obligation. "Security interest" includes any interest of a consignor and a buyer of accounts, chattel paper, a payment intangible, or a promissory note in a transaction that is subject to Article 9. "Security interest" does not include the special property interest of a buyer of goods on identification of those goods to a contract for sale under Section 75-2-401, but a buyer may also acquire a "security interest" by complying with Article 9. Except as otherwise provided in Section 75-2-505, the right of a seller or lessor of goods under Article 2 or 2A to retain or acquire possession of the goods is not a "security interest," but a seller or lessor may also acquire a "security interest" by complying with Article 9. The retention or reservation of title by a seller of goods notwithstanding shipment or delivery to the buyer under Section 75-2-401 is limited in effect to a reservation of a "security interest." Whether a transaction in the form of a lease creates a "security interest" is determined pursuant to Section 75-1-203.
(36) "Send" in connection with a writing, record, or notice means:
(A) To deposit in the mail or deliver for transmission by any other usual means of communication with postage or cost of transmission provided for and properly addressed and, in the case of an instrument, to an address specified thereon or otherwise agreed, or if there be none to any address reasonable under the circumstances; or
(B) In any other way to cause to be received any record or notice within the time it would have arrived if properly sent.
(37) "Signed" includes using any symbol executed or adopted with present intention to adopt or accept a writing.
(38) "State" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
(39) "Surety" includes a guarantor or other secondary obligor.
(40) "Term" means a portion of an agreement that relates to a particular matter.
(41) "Unauthorized signature" means a signature made without actual, implied, or apparent authority. The term includes a forgery.
(42) "Warehouse receipt" means a receipt issued by a person engaged in the business of storing goods for hire.
(43) "Writing"' includes printing, typewriting, or any other intentional reduction to tangible form. "Written" has a corresponding meaning.
SECTION 3. Section 75-15-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:
75-15-3. For the purposes of this chapter:
(a) "Check" means any check, draft, money order, personal money order or other instrument, including but not limited to stored value cards, for the transmission or payment of money. The format of a check may be either paper, electronic, plastic or any combination thereof.
(b) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Banking and Consumer Finance of the State of Mississippi.
(c) "Deliver" means to deliver a check to the first person who in payment for same makes or purports to make a remittance of or against the face amount thereof, whether or not the deliverer also charges a fee in addition to the face amount, and whether or not the deliverer signs the check.
(d) "Executive officer" means the licensee's president, chairman of the executive committee, senior officer responsible for the licensee's business, chief financial officer and any other person who performs similar functions.
(e) "Licensee" means a person duly licensed by the commissioner under this chapter.
(f) "Monetary value" means a medium of exchange, whether or not redeemable in money.
(g) "Money transmission" means to engage in the business of the sale or issuance of checks or of receiving money or monetary value for transmission to a location within or outside the United States by any and all means, including but not limited to wire, facsimile or electronic transfer.
(h) "Outstanding check" means any check issued or sold in Mississippi by or for the licensee that has been reported as sold but not yet paid by or for the licensee.
(i) "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, joint-stock association, trust or corporation, but does not include the United States government or the government of this state.
(j) "Personal money order" means any instrument for the transmission or payment of money in relation to which the purchaser or remitter appoints or purports to appoint the seller thereof as his agent for the receipt, transmission or handling of money, whether the instrument is signed by the seller or by the purchaser or remitter or some other person.
(k) "Records" or "documents" means any item in hard copy or produced in a format of storage commonly described as electronic, imaged, magnetic, microphotographic or otherwise, and any reproduction so made shall have the same force and effect as the original thereof and be admitted in evidence equally with the original.
(l) "Sell" means to sell, to issue or to deliver a check.
(m) "Stored value" means monetary value that is evidenced by an electronic record.
SECTION 4. Section 89-12-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is brought forward as follows:
89-12-3. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "Banking organization" means any national or state bank, trust company, savings bank, land bank, private banker, or any similar organization which is engaged in business in this state.
(b) "Business association" means any corporation, joint-stock company, business trust, partnership, or any association for business purposes of two (2) or more individuals, whether organized for profit or nonprofit, including, but not limited to, a banking organization, financial organization, life insurance corporation and utility.
(c) "Financial organization" means any federal or state savings and loan association, building and loan association, credit union, cooperative bank or investment company, or any similar organization which is engaged in business in this state.
(d) "Holder" means any person in possession of property subject to the provisions of this chapter belonging to another, or who is trustee in case of a trust, or is indebted to another on an obligation subject to the provisions of this chapter.
(e) "Insurance corporation" means any association or corporation transacting in this state the business of insurance involving in any manner a person or property; however, this term does not include self-insured workers' compensation groups or associations comprised of members who have joint and several liability for the workers' compensation obligation of the other members.
(f) "Intangible personal property" includes, but is not limited to:
(i) Monies, checks, drafts, deposits, interest, dividends, and income;
(ii) Credit balances, customer overpayments, gift certificates, security deposits, refunds, credit memos, unpaid wages, unused airline tickets, and unidentified remittances; except future and prior dividends made by the workers' compensation groups or associations described in paragraph (e);
(iii) Monies deposited to redeem stocks, bonds, coupons, and other securities, or to make distributions;
(iv) Amounts due and payable under the terms of insurance policies;
(v) Amounts distributable from a trust or custodial fund established under a plan to provide health, welfare, pension, vacation, severance, retirement, death, stock purchase, profit sharing, employee savings, supplemental unemployment insurance, or similar benefits;
(vi) Shares of corporate stock and other intangible ownership interests in business associations; and
(vii) Bonds, notes and other debt obligations.
(g) "Owner" means a depositor in case of a deposit, a beneficiary in case of a trust, a creditor, claimant or payee in case of other choses in action, or any person having a legal or equitable interest in property subject to the provisions of this chapter, or his legal representative.
(h) "Apparent owner" means the person who appears from the records of the holder to be entitled to property held by the holder.
(i) "Person" means any individual, business association, government or political subdivision or agency, corporation, public authority, estate, trust, two (2) or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal or commercial entity whether such person is acting in his own right or in a representative capacity.
(j) "Treasurer" means the State Treasurer of the State of Mississippi.
(k) "Utility" means any person who owns or operates in this state for public use, any plant, equipment, property, franchise, or license for the transmission of communications or the production, storage, transmission, sale, delivery, or furnishing of electricity, water, steam or gas.
SECTION 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2024.