Printable Format84-2a-101. Short title. This article shall be known and may be cited as the uniform commercial code—leases.
History: L. 1991, ch. 295, § 1; February 1, 1992.
KANSAS COMMENT, 1996
1. Article 2A provides a comprehensive codification of the law dealing with personal property leases. It was approved in 1987 as the first new article of the Uniform Commercial Code since its promulgation, although Article 2A was not enacted in Kansas until after Article 4A, which deals with wholesale funds transfers. Article 2A was substantially revised in 1990, and it was the 1990 official text that the Kansas legislature enacted effective February 1, 1992.
2. The need for Article 2A arose from the tremendous growth of personal property leasing into a multi-billion dollar industry and the patchwork nature of the law governing such leases. The Official Comments identify three significant issues the drafters sought to resolve in Article 2A: (1) What constitutes a lease? (2) What warranties does the lessor make? and (3) What remedies are available to the lessor when the lessee defaults? In resolving these and other issues, the drafters chose Article 2, the sales article of the Code, as the statutory analogue for Article 2A. Indeed, a number of courts had applied the provisions of Article 2 by analogy to leases prior to the enactment of Article 2A. The drafters borrowed to a lesser extent from Article 9 on secured transactions (see 84-9-101 et seq.) and from the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (see K.S.A. 16a-1-101 et seq.).
3. Because Article 2 is the principal statutory analogue, the Official Comments to the sections of Article 2 carried over into Article 2A are incorporated by reference in Article 2A. The same is true for these Kansas Comments, which frequently rely on and cross reference the 1996 Kansas Comments to Article 2. The Official Comments to this section explain that case law interpreting relevant provisions of Article 2 "should be viewed as persuasive but not binding on a court when deciding a similar issue with respect to leases."
4. Useful secondary sources include William H. Lawrence & John H. Minan, The Law of Personal Property Leasing (1993 & Supp. 1996); William D. Hawkland & Frederick H. Miller, 3A Uniform Commercial Code Series (1993 & Supp. 1995); James J. White & Robert S. Summers, 2 Uniform Commercial Code §§ 13-1 to 13-4 (4th ed. Practitioner Treatise Series 1995). For law review commentary, see William H. Lawrence & John H. Minan, Deviations from the Statutory Analogues: The New U.C.C. Article 2A, 40 K.L.R. 531 (1992); William H. Lawrence & John H. Minan, Resolved: That the Kansas and Other State Legislatures Should Enact Article 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code, 39 K.L.R. 95 (1990); Symposium: Article 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code, 39 Ala. L. Rev. 559 (1988) (addressing 1987 official text).