Rhode Island General Laws Title 34. Property § 34-27.2-3. Definitions

(1) “ Express Trust” means funds that have been paid by an owner, for or in connection with materials used in an improvement of real property, which are to be held by a contractor or subcontractor, in express trust, for material men. Any such contractor or subcontractor who accepts money from any owner or contractor shall become the trustee of the express trust that is created under this act. The amounts received by such contractor or subcontractor under or in connection with each building project shall be a separate trust and the contractor or subcontractor, or any successor and/or assign of such contractor or subcontractor that hold such trust funds, shall be a trustee thereof. These funds are not required to be held in any separate account by a contractor or subcontractor. Such trust shall be effective against and shall have priority over any interest of a party seeking payment from such contractor or subcontractor for claims other than those that are due and owing by reason of the specific building project for which the trust was created, whether such creditors are foreign attachment or other judicial lien creditors, a trustee in bankruptcy or similar creditors or representatives or creditors of the contractor or subcontractor.

(2) “ Material men” means those retailers of lumber who are engaged in the business primarily of selling lumber and building materials to contractors, subcontractors, or repairmen to be used for the construction, erection, alteration, or repairing a building or other structure or in the making of any other improvements on land or the preparation thereof, and whose lumber and building material sales comprise of at least fifty percent (50%) of their total sales as defined in section 44-19-41.