Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3424

  • Commission: means the Louisiana Agricultural Commodities Commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Cotton agent: means every person, firm, corporation, association, or other legal entity who purchases or contracts to purchase cotton grown or to be grown by producers in this state for or on behalf of a cotton merchant and who is required to be a party to a notarized written agency agreement. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Cotton merchant: means every person, firm, corporation, association, or other legal entity who purchases or contracts to purchase, either directly or through a cotton agent, cotton grown or to be grown by producers in this state. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Encumbrance: means any lien, privilege, judgment, mortgage, pledge, pawn, claim, charge, or any other encumbrance of like nature. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:1
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Grain: means corn, wheat, oats, rye, soybeans, barley, and grain sorghum. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Grain dealer: means any person who purchases any agricultural commodities from producers or represents producers in the sale of agricultural commodities. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Producer: means the owner, tenant, lessee, or operator of land within this state who has an interest in or receives all or any part of the proceeds from the sale of agricultural commodities produced thereon. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Risk position: means the loss potential to the grain dealer resulting from bringing its open position to market. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Warehouse: means any building, structure, or any other protected enclosure required to be licensed by the commission in which agricultural commodities or other farm products are stored for the public for a fee. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402
  • Warehouseman: means any person or other entity operating a warehouse. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 3:3402

A.  It shall be unlawful for any warehouse to sell, alienate, encumber, transfer title to, pledge, mortgage, or hypothecate in any manner any agricultural commodity or other farm product, or any portion thereof, which has been deposited by the owner thereof specifically for any type of storage, under any type of warehouse receipt or under a scale ticket marked “storage”, and which is not the property of the warehouse, without the specific written authorization of the owner thereof.  The sale, alienation, encumbrance, transfer of title, pledging, mortgaging, or hypothecation of any such agricultural commodity or other farm product without the written authorization of the owner thereof shall be presumptive evidence of the warehouseman‘s criminal intent to deprive such owner of his agricultural commodity or other farm product, or the market value thereof, and the warehouse and warehouseman shall be subject, upon conviction, to a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, imprisonment for not more than ten years, or both.

B.  Any grain dealer who intentionally violates La. Rev. Stat. 3:3413(B) by maintaining a risk position in excess of thirty percent of its current net worth shall be subject, upon conviction, to a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, imprisonment for not more than ten years, or both.

C.  Any warehouseman, cotton merchant, or cotton agent, or grain dealer who is found to have willfully submitted false reports of any kind required by this Chapter or by rule or regulation of the commission shall be subject, upon conviction, to the penalties for perjury established under La. Rev. Stat. 14:123.

D.  The willful failure of a cotton merchant or a cotton agent to pay for cotton delivered which was purchased by the cotton merchant or cotton agent from a cotton producer in this state shall be fraudulent conduct for the purposes of La. Rev. Stat. 14:67.

Added by Acts 1982, No. 563, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1983; Acts 1997, No. 1034, §1; Acts 2009, No. 24, §1, eff. June 12, 2009.

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