Hilburn v. Southern Trailer Distributors, Inc.
Hilburn v. Southern Trailer Distributors, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
William T. Smith and his wife Betty have filed a petition in voluntary bankruptcy. A major part of their personal property is a mobile home, the bone of contention here. Trailer Credit Corporation (Trailer), as assignee of Southern Trailer Distributors, Inc., claims priority as holder of a perfected security interest in the mobile home. The trustee in bankruptcy challenges Trailer’s preferred status, asserting that its security interest was never perfected under Mississippi law. The bankruptcy judge ruled in favor of the trustee, holding that Trailer’s security interest was unperfected, but was reversed by the district court.
Mississippi has adopted Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, under which a security interest in property similar to that under consideration may be perfected by filing a financing statement in the proper location.
In Mississippi, financing statements once filed are indexed under the name of the debtor. The index contains, in addition to the name of the debtor, the file number of the financing statement and the address of the debtor given in the statement. Miss.Code Ann. § 75 — 9— 403(4). The financing statement, in turn, should properly contain the name and a mailing address of the debtor, the
At least one court has opined, in dictum, that the omission of the debt- or’s address from a financing statement would, as a matter of law, prevent such a statement from perfecting a security interest. In re Smith, 205 F.Supp. 27 (E.D.Pa. 1962). Other, and we believe better reasoned, opinions have held that the omission of the debtor’s address does not necessarily have this effect. Rooney v. Mason, 394 F.2d 250 (10th Cir. 1968), In re French, 317 F.Supp. 1226 (E.D.Tenn. 1970).
Article 9 contemplates a notice system designed to alert those who wish to deal with debtors that others may hold security interests in property which they are contemplating purchasing or taking as collateral. A filed and properly indexed financing statement should serve this function. If a financing statement containing an incomplete address of the debtor would not do so, it could not rightly perfect a security interest. However, this is not our case. A properly filed financing statement is effective for five years. Miss.Code Ann. § 75-9-403(2). “[A] filing which is made in the proper place in this state continues effective even though the debtor’s residence or place of business ... is thereafter changed.” Miss.Code Ann. § 75-9 — 401(3). Moreover, there is no requirement that, once filed, a financing statement be amended to show a change in the address of the debtor. Thus, it is clear that one utilizing the Article 9 notification system can in no case safely rely upon the address listed in the index or on the financing statement as reflecting the correct, present address of the debtor. It follows that the address required by the UCC — 1 form is not designed to locate currently or identify, for certain, the debtor. As a practical matter, ninety-nine times out of a hundred the debtor will have applied to and already be known to the party who wishes to deal with him. We believe the Code clearly contemplates that the correct names of the debtor
Affirmed.
. Apparently uncertain as to the proper place to file, Southern Trailer Distributors applied the belt-and-suspenders principle, filing both with the Secretary of State and with the Chancery Clerk of Rankin County.
. In both of these cases the address of the secured party, as well as that of the debtor, was omitted.
. The bankruptcy judge found that there were numerous William Smiths and William T. Smiths within the City of Jackson and that no particular debtor could be designated by the address supplied within the financing statement. A more useful finding would have been whether, as Trailer asserted below, there was only one W. T. Smith or William T. Smith living in the given zip code area, so that a letter mailed to the address given would in normal course have reached the debtors. Cf. Silvers, Trustee in Bankruptcy v. Gulf City Body & Trailer Works, 432 F.2d 992 (5th Cir. 1970).
. The correct name of the debtor is necessary for indexing, as well as identity.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In the Matter of the BANKRUPT ESTATE of William Travis SMITH and Betty Faye Smith, Bankrupt. L. Breland HILBURN, Trustee v. SOUTHERN TRAILER DISTRIBUTORS, INC., and Trailer Credit Corporation
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published