Opinion ID: 1816750
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the landlord's crop lien

Text: 49 Am.Jur.2d, Landlord and Tenant, § 675 at 641 (1970) states: [A] lien in favor of the landlord ... arises only from a statute creating such a lien, or from the agreement of the tenant giving a lien. See also, 13 Harl, Agricultural Law, Farm Leases, § 121.05[2] (1989). In Mississippi, § 89-7-51, Mississippi Code Annotated (1972), as Amended, creates the statutory crop lien. Couched in mandatory and unequivocal terms, this statute states: (1) Every lessor of land shall have a lien on the agricultural products of the leased premises, however and by whomsoever produced, to secure the payment of the rent and of money advanced to the tenant. This lien shall be paramount to all other liens, claims, or demands upon such products. (Emphasis supplied). (2) All articles of personal property, except stock of merchandise sold in the normal course of business, owned by the lessee of real property and situated on the leased premises shall be subject to a lien in favor of the lessor to secure the payment of rent. Such lien shall be subject to all prior liens or other security interest perfected according to law. By arguing that Landlord did not retain her statutory lien, Bank chooses to ignore a basic tenet of statutory construction; that shall is mandatory and may is discretionary. Murphy v. State, 253 Miss. 644, 178 So.2d 692 (1965). Obviously, the Mississippi Legislature intended for a landlord's lien to be the rule and not the exception. Statutory language indicates that the legislature designed the landlord's lien to be superior to all other claims. This Court has stated that the landlord's lien exists by positive law and that the lien created by law exists without writing or record. Newman v. Bank of Greenville, 66 Miss. 323, 337, 5 So. 753, 757 (1889). Without doubt, a landlord may expressly or impliedly, waive his right to claim a statutory lien upon the property of his tenant. 49 Am Jur 2d, Landlord and Tenant, § 693 at 654 (1970). In Mississippi, the burden is upon Bank to prove that Landlord expressly waived her landlord's lien. Thompson v. Hill, 147 Miss. 489, 112 So. 697 (1927). The specific terms of this lease in no way imparts an intent by Landlord to expressly waive the protection afforded by this statutory creature. Bank's argument is shallow, frivolous, devoid of logic and totally without merit.