In re Parks

16 Ohio Misc. 135, 45 Ohio Op. 2d 109, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1107, 1968 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 252
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedSeptember 11, 1968
DocketNos. B68-2167 and B68-2168
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 16 Ohio Misc. 135 (In re Parks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Parks, 16 Ohio Misc. 135, 45 Ohio Op. 2d 109, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1107, 1968 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 252 (N.D. Ohio 1968).

Opinions

Opinion and OedbR

At Canton, Ohio, in this District, on the 26th day of July 1968.

Ensley, Referee in Bankruptcy.

Each of the bankrupts were adjudicated April 24, 1968. Prior thereto and while residents of Glendale, California, they executed and delivered to Beneficial Finance Company (hereinafter referred to as Beneficial), Glendale, California, a security agreement dated July 11,1967, covering two certain motor vehicles, and “all of the consumer goods including household furniture, furnishings, carpets, draperies, chinaware and other household goods of every kind now or hereafter owned or hereafter acquired by the debtors in replacement of such consumer goods and now or hereafter located in or about the debtor’s place of residence at their addresses shown hereon on the box above on this security agreement.” Thence followed an itemization of the collateral which included a Packard Bell Model 63 record player, one G. E. TV set, and one Olympic portable TV set, none of which articles were set off as exempt by the trustee, and which are the subject of the application for a turnover order filed by the trustee herein.

On July 17, 1967, Beneficial filed with the County Re[137]*137corder of Los Angeles County, California, a financing statement dated July 11, 1967 (being the date of the security agreement), which stated it covers “all of the consumer goods, including household furniture, furnishings, carpets, draperies, chinaware and other household goods of every kind now owned or hereafter acquired by debtors * *

Subsequently, bankrupts moved from Glendale to Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio, and within four months thereof, on October 16, 1967, Beneficial filed with the recorder of Wayne County, Ohio, a financing statement dated October 9, 1967 (not the date of California financing statement which was dated July 11,1967), and which bore neither the signature of the debtor or the secured party, but did state “the collateral covered by this financing statement was already subject to a security interest in the state of California recorded in the office records of the Los Angeles County Recorder No. 761155, filed July 17,1967, at the time it was brought into Ohio.” No reference was made therein to the date shown on the California financing statement.

The financing statement filed in Wayne County states: “This financing statement covers the following types (or items) of property: [x] all of the household goods now or hereafter located at the residence of debtors whose address is shown above.” The debtor’s address was shown in Wayne County, Ohio.

Subsequently bankrupts again moved to Newcomer s-town, Ohio, where they resided at the time of their adjudication.

On May 21, 1968, Lorn P. Stevenson, trustee for both bankrupts filed an application for a turnover order of the chattels heretofore referred to naming the Beneficial as a respondent. They answered claiming by reason of the filings hereinbefore referred to they had the first and best lien on the property, and prayed the application for turnover be denied. Neither bankrupt answered, but appeared at the hearing, as did Beneficial, at which time copies of the security agreement and the two financing statements were introduced into evidence, and stipulated to be true and correct copies of the instruments on file.

[138]*138Discussion

The security agreement executed in California spelled out in detail each and every item of personal property given as security for the loan made by Beneficial. The financing statement, filed in California, condensed that description and appears to have been sufficient to perfect its security interest in California, as long as the property secured remained there. However, the adequacy of the financing statement filed in Ohio is at issue because (1) It fails to bear the signature of the creditor; (2) the date of the Ohio filed financing statement is at variance with the one filed in California; and (3) there is a variance in the description of the collateral in the Ohio financing statement with the California financing statement.

Here we are concerned solely with “Consumer Goods” as they are defined in Section 1309.07(A), Revised Code, and that is how they are described in the California financing statement. When a debtor moves his consumer goods from a state in which the security interest attached, Section 1309.03(C), Revised Code, provides “the security interest continues perfected in this state for four months and also thereafter if within the four months period it is perfected in this state.”

Was the security interest of Beneficial ever perfected in this state?

Where a creditor files in Ohio the financing statement contemplated by Section 1309.03(C), Revised Code, in order to insure the continuity of the perfection of its lien, when its lien had attached at the former situs of the property, the provisions of Section 1309.39, Revised Code, constitute the legislative demands upon a secured party to perfect and protect its security interest. Section 1309.39, Revised Code, contemplates the filing of a copy of the identical financing statement already on file in another jurisdiction, with the permissive exception noted in Section 1309.-39(B), Revised Code, wherein only the secured party need sign the financing statement. Apparently the Legislature realized the difficulty of a creditor to again obtain the signature of a debtor to another financing’statement, in the event the creditor moved to another jurisdiction, even [139]*139though the creditor was advised of the move, so m such case only the secured party was required to sign an Ohio filed financing statement which would have the effect of an attestation of the veracity of the Ohio filed financing statement as it related to a filing in the former jurisdiction.

The California security agreement and financing statement each bear the signatures of the debtors and of the person named as manager of Beneficial. It is noted that on the California financing statement, there is a designated place for the signature of the manager of Beneficial, and of the debtors. No such places for signature appear on the printed form of the Ohio filed financing statement. The debtors and the secured parties are properly identified, but there appears no “signature” or any “writing” on said Ohio filed financing statement. Everything shown thereon is either printed or typewritten, except the official stamp of the Wayne County Eecorder.

Section 1301.01 (MM), Eevised Code, extends the meaning of the word “signed” by stating: “ ‘Signed’ includes any symbol executed or adopted by a party with present intention to authenticate a writing.”

“Symbol” is defined in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary as 2) “In writing or printing, a conventional sign, such as a character, a letter, or an abbreviation, used instead of a word, or words * * .” There is no character, letter or abbreviation present in the financing statement that can be construed as a symbol, and therefore there was no intention shown to authenticate that writing in the absence of a symbol or a signature.

The Maine Uniform Commercial Code used the identical definition of the word “signed” as does Ohio, and there in BK 65-415 ND, In re Carlstrom, the bankruptcy court had occasion to construe it. There, the Eastern Trust and Banking Company filed a financing statement. In the relevant part of the printed form were two blank signature spaces which were completed as follows:

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16 Ohio Misc. 135, 45 Ohio Op. 2d 109, 5 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1107, 1968 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-parks-ohnd-1968.