Request By:
Honorable Alben W. Barkley, II
Commissioner
Department of Agriculture
Capital Plaza Tower
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising two questions concerning Kentucky's Grain Storage Law. You first ask whether grain priced at the time of delivery but unpaid for after thirty days of the date of delivery meets the definition of stored grain under KRS 251.410(4).
KRS 251.410(4) states as follows:
"'Stored grain' means grain received from a producer and unpaid for and held for a period longer than thirty (30) days after delivery of the last load. "
Stored grain includes all grain and all transactions which satisfy the statutory requirements set forth in the above-quoted definition. If the grain is received from a producer and unpaid for and held for more than thirty days after delivery of the last load, it is stored grain regardless of the label attached to the transaction.
Unpaid for grain is commonly held pursuant to three different methods: open storage grain (grain left with the grain elevator by the producer with a price to be set at any time in the future); delayed purchase grain (grain left with the grain elevator with an agreement that a price must be set after a certain date); grain priced or sold when delivered but not yet paid for. The grain held pursuant to any of these methods will be considered "stored grain" if that grain satisfies the requirements of the term "stored grain" as it is defined in KRS 251.410(4).
In addition, 302 KAR 35:010, section (1), states in part that all grain at date of delivery which is marked open storage, grain bank, future settlement, delayed payment, or delayed pricing is considered stored grain. All grain at date of delivery marked cash is considered warehouseman grain if paid for within thirty days after delivery of last load. If not paid for after thirty days, it is considered stored grain.
Thus, grain received from a producer and priced or sold at the time of delivery but unpaid for and held for a period longer than thirty days after delivery of the last load is "stored grain" within the meaning of KRS 251.410(4).
Your second question asks whether a scale ticket or receipt is acceptable as a grain storage receipt under KRS 251.410(6).
KRS 251.410(6) states:
"'Owner' means a person whose grain is in storage and has been issued a grain storage receipt."
The Kentucky Grain Storage Law (KRS 251.410 to 251.510) was originally enacted in 1970. It contained the above-quoted definition of "owner" and in KRS 251.500 it required that a receipt for grain stored be issued at the time of storage. The law was amended in 1972 and while the definition of "owner" was not changed, other sections of the law were changed, including KRS 251.500.
KRS 251.500 no longer deals with grain storage receipts but KRS 251.480(1) was amended to provide as follows:
"Each licensee of a grain storage establishment shall keep in a safe place complete and correct records of the storage and withdrawal of all grain handled in each grain storage establishment which he is licensed to operate, and complete records of all original and duplicate receipts or scale tickets issued by him, returned to him and canceled by him, which shall be available to the department."
KRS 251.480(2) states that a licensee must issue receipts or scale tickets meeting the requirements enumerated in the statute. The receipts and the scale tickets are required to contain the same information. Included as part of the information required by law to be contained on the receipt or scale ticket are the kind of grain and grade, or moisture content and test weight of forigan materials, if applicable; gross, tare and net weight and provision for adjustment of quality factors; a provision for indicating if the grain is sold, purchase contract, delay pricing, open storage, receipted storage, or grain bank, etc.; initials of weigher.
The law, as amended, as set forth in KRS 251.480, now deals in terms of receipts or scale tickets, both of which are required to contain the same information, rather than just grain storage receipts as was formerly the case under KRS 251.500. Although KRS 251.410(6) still defines "owner" as a person whose grain is in storage and who has been issued a grain storage receipt, it is our opinion that an "owner" would now include a person whose grain is in storage and who has been issued a receipt or scale ticket pursuant to KRS 251.480.