An act to amend Section 3061.5 of the Civil Code, relating to civil law.
Summary
SB 846 amends Civil Code Section 3061.5 governing liens for agricultural labor. Under existing law, employees who personally harvest or transport harvested crops or farm products can claim a lien on the severed crops, farm products, or sale proceeds for unpaid labor, subject to specified limits and an exception when the grower or producer posts a surety bond with the Labor Commissioner. The bill removes the prior limitation that the statute applied only when the crops or farm products were owned, grown, or produced by a limited partnership, thereby broadening the lien protection to apply more generally to qualifying agricultural operations.
The bill preserves the core structure of the lien remedy: the lien attaches from the start of the work, is preferred over other liens and encumbrances, is capped at the lesser of actual proved claims or 25 percent of fair market value or sale proceeds, and does not apply if the owner posts an acceptable bond. It also keeps the rule that buyers in the ordinary course of business take free of the security interest created by the statute. In practical terms, the measure expands wage-protection rights for harvest and transport workers while maintaining existing protections for owners, contractors, and downstream buyers.
Impact
SB 846 changes California civil lien law by expanding who may be subject to an agricultural labor lien under Civil Code Section 3061.5. The amendment removes the limited-partnership ownership condition from the statute, making the lien remedy available in a broader set of crop-harvesting and crop-transporting situations. The bill does not create a new program or appropriation, but it does enlarge the class of agricultural employers and owners whose crops or proceeds may be encumbered for unpaid labor claims, while leaving intact the bond alternative and the priority/limit rules already in the statute.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial in the Legislature. It advanced on consent calendar votes with unanimous or near-unanimous support at each recorded stage, including 12-0, 34-0, 11-0, and 71-0 votes. The absence of committee transcript opposition and the repeated consent-calendar treatment suggest a generally favorable view of the measure as a targeted labor-protection update.
Contention
No major contention is evident in the available record. The only likely policy tension is between agricultural labor protections and the interests of growers, contractors, and buyers who may face increased lien exposure when wages are unpaid. However, the bill retains the existing bond mechanism that can eliminate the lien and preserves protections for ordinary-course buyers, which likely reduced opposition. The legislative history provided does not show any recorded dissent or substantive committee dispute.