New Mexico Enacts Revised Article 1

Governor Bill Richardson today signed HB 834, which, by its terms, will take effect on January 1, 2006.  HB 834, like the eight versions of Revised Article 1 already enacted in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Texas, and Virginia, rejects uniform R1-301, retaining the basic choice-of-law regime of pre-revised 1-105.  HB 834, like the versions of Revised Article 1 enacted in four other states (Arkansas, Delaware, Minnesota, and Texas), adopts uniform R1-201(b)(20)’s definition of “good faith” and “honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing.”