UNITED
STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT
EASTERN
DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
LEXINGTON
DIVISION
IN
RE:
GARY
WAYNE LYNUM
DEBTOR CASE NO. 99-52599
MEMORANDUM
OPINION AND ORDER
This matter is
before the Court on the Motion for Relief From Stay and for the Trustee to
Abandon Property of the Estate filed on January 20, 2000, by M & T
Financing, Inc. (M & T), a creditor, and the Objection of Trustee to
Motion for Relief from Stay filed on January 24, 2000. The matter has been heard by the Court and
both M & T and the trustee have filed memoranda in support of their
respective positions, and the matter is ripe for decision.
The parties appear
to agree as to the pertinent facts. The
debtor had given a security interest in his 1996 Rinker Siesta boat to National
City Bank (NCB), successor to First of America, another creditor. The debt owing to this creditor was in the
amount of $33,942.34, representing the balance due on a note and security
agreement executed on May 13, 1998. NCB
did not properly perfect its lien. The
debtor then became indebted to M & T on December 4, 1998, in the sum of
$50,000.00. To secure this commercial
loan, the debtor gave M & T a security interest in the boat. M & T properly perfected its security
interest by filing it with the appropriate authority. Its lien is noted on the boats Certificate of Title.
NCB had filed a
Motion for Termination of Automatic Stay and for Abandonment of Property on
December 15, 1999, and the trustee filed an Objection to the Motion on December
16, 1999, and asked that the motion be denied and that NCBs unperfected lien
be avoided and preserved for the benefit of the estate. The trustee has not filed an adversary
proceeding in this regard. A hearing
was conducted on NCBs Motion for Termination of Automatic Stay on January 6,
2000, and NCB withdrew its Motion.
Thereafter M & T filed its Motion for Relief and the trustee filed
his Objection, as set out above.
The trustee takes
the position that M & T should not be granted relief from the stay because
its lien is junior to that of NCB. He
appears to base this determination on the fact that NCB acquired a security interest
in the subject boat before M & T did.
He asserts that if he filed an adversary proceeding to avoid NCBs lien,
he would be in a position superior to that of M & T. Analysis of this issue will demonstrate that
the trustees argument is incorrect.
In In re Bell,
194 B.R. 192 (Bkrtcy.S.D.Ill. 1996), the court set out the basic approach to
lien avoidance and considerations of lien priority:
Section 544(a)(1) provides that a
bankruptcy trustee acquires, as of the commencement of a case, the status of a
hypothetical judicial lien creditor and may avoid any lien or encumbrance on
property of the debtor that is voidable by such a creditor under state
law. Under this provision, federal and
state law work in tandem. First, the
substance of the trustees rights as judicial lien creditorprimarily the
priority of his claim in relation to other interests in the propertyis
determined by reference to state law.
At 195. On
the date of the filing of the petition in this case, November 10, 1999, the
trustee therefore became a judgment lien creditor. 11 U.S.C. §544(a). Matter
of Quality Holstein Leasing, 752 F2d 1009 (5th Cir. 1985). Under Kentucky law, an unperfected
security interest is subordinate to the rights of a subsequent lien
creditor. KRS 355.9-301(1)(b). A lien creditor includes a trustee in
bankruptcy. KRS 355.9-301(3).
In South Bay
Enterprises, Inc. v. Mirada Bay Petroleum, Inc., 957 S.W.2d 287,
Ky.App.(1997), the court defined the position of a lien creditor under KRS
355.9-301(b), stating that it:
governs the rights of lien creditors as against
unperfected secured parties competing for collateral. KRS 355.9-301 states in pertinent part:
Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2 of
this section, an unperfected security interest is subordinate to the rights of:
....
(b) A person who becomes a lien creditor before
the security interest is perfected.
KRS 355.9-301(3) defines a lien creditor as: a
creditor who has acquired a lien on the property involved by attachment, levy
or the like and includes .... a trustee in bankruptcy from the date of filing
of the petition ....
In D.
Leibson & R. Nowka, The Uniform Commercial Code of Kentucky, §10.4(B)(1)(2d
ed. 1992), the authors explain that [A] person who becomes a lien creditor
before a security interest is perfected will defeat the security interest even
if the lien creditor has knowledge of the security interest.
At 288.
The security interest the debtor granted to NCB is unperfected and, by
virtue of 11 U.S.C. §544(a), the trustee, having the lien of a hypothetical
judgment lien creditor, prevails against NCB under Kentucky law. Further, once a lien is avoided pursuant to
§544, it is automatically preserved for the benefit of the estate pursuant to
11 U.S.C. §551.
A perfected security
interest is not, however, subordinate to the rights of a subsequent judgment
lien creditor. KRS 355.912(5)(a) states
as follows:
(5) In all cases not governed by other rules
stated in this section (including cases of purchase money security interests
which do not qualify for the special priorities set forth in subsections (3)
and (4) of this section), priority among conflicting security interests in the
same collateral shall be determined according to the following rules:
(a)
Conflicting security interests rank according to priority in time of
filing or perfection. Priority dates
from the time a filing is first made covering the collateral or the time the
security interest is perfected, whichever is earlier, provided that there is no
period thereafter when there is neither filing nor perfection.
This provision makes it clear that the fact that
the trustee could avoid NCBs lien and preserve it for the benefit of the
estate does not mean he would prevail over M & T, which has the prior and
superior lien on account of its properly perfected security interest versus the
trustees prior in time but unperfected lien.
The trustee, however,
not only ignores the effect of failure to perfect a lien on priority, he
misapprehends the concept of priority.
He talks about the validity of a lien as between the debtor and
creditor, regardless of the state of perfection, being determinative of whether
a lien is prior and superior. Any
properly executed security agreement is valid as between the debtor and the
creditor, whether or not it is perfected.
Concerns about priority arise in the context of the rights of third
parties in the collateral. This is
where KRS 355.9-312(5)(a) comes in. The
trustee cannot escape the consequences of this section.
All the cases cited by M
& T support its position, that because it had the prior perfected lien, it
prevails. Even cases cited by the
trustee support this position. For
example, in In re Fowler, 201 B.R. 771 (Bkrtcy.E.D.Tenn. 1996), the
court stated that the preservation of an unperfected security interest will
not enable the estate to defeat a secured creditors perfected lien. At
781. Some of the cases cited by the
trustee do not speak to the issue of a perfected lien competing with the
unperfected lien avoided by the trustee.
See, e.g., In re Double J Cattle Co., 203 B.R. 484 (D.Wyo.
1995), and In re Peregrine Entertainment, Ltd., 116 B.R. 194 (C.D.Cal.
1990). The trustees position, after
the avoidable lien is avoided and he is substituted into the position of the
creditor holding the avoided lien, must still be measured against any unavoided
security interests under state law.
When that is done here the trustee does not prevail.
In consideration of all
of the foregoing, it is the opinion of this Court that M & Ts Motion for Relief
From Stay and for the Trustee to Abandon Property of the Estate should be
sustained, and the Objection of Trustee to Motion for Relief from Stay should be
overruled. It is hereby so ORDERED.
Entered this day of March, 2000.
By the Court -
Judge William S. Howard
Copies
to:
Robert
J. Brown, Esq., Trustee
Bernard
S. Lewis, Esq.