Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Revised Article 2 Finally Adopted!

Today's news included an announcement that all states have finally agreed to adopt the Revised Article 2, which many thought to be pretty much a dead letter at this point. As you might expect, consumer groups are thrilled and the Business Roundtable is irked commenting:

"While the Roundtable supports uniform drafting efforts, clearly this is
the result of mischief. This will put market opportunities and innovation
on hold. The benefits will not outweigh the cost."
The Obama administration announced, though, that "we cannot afford half measures" and suggested that the drafters instead return to the bargaining table to get the thing done for real.

For those of us who just finished writing Professor Doug Whaley's co-authored competition, we are thrilled! The problem involved rewriting the section of Doug Whaley's Sales text on statute of limitations presuming that revised Article 2 was in force. Of course, under today's announcement, the new statute of limitations goes into effect immediately. Revised Article 2 retained the basic 4 year limitations period but has some gems in the accrual rules meant to tackle some of the more troubling portions of prior Article 2. Particularly important to the Revised 2-725's exceptions on accruals is a rule whereby sellers cannot reduce the limitations period on consumer contracts.

Happily, I will now go through my home looking for broken items that failed way before they should have.


JSM