Northwest Livestock Production Credit Ass'n v. Coast Trading Co. (In re Coast Trading Co.)

31 B.R. 670, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1753, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 6045
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Oregon
DecidedJune 10, 1983
DocketBankruptcy No. 382-00974; Adv. No. 82-0708
StatusPublished

This text of 31 B.R. 670 (Northwest Livestock Production Credit Ass'n v. Coast Trading Co. (In re Coast Trading Co.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northwest Livestock Production Credit Ass'n v. Coast Trading Co. (In re Coast Trading Co.), 31 B.R. 670, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1753, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 6045 (Or. 1983).

Opinion

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

FOLGER JOHNSON, Bankruptcy Judge.

In the adversary proceeding of Northwest Livestock Production Credit Association v. Coast Trading Co., The Oregon Bank, and The Bank of Nova Scotia, No. 82-0708, the Court makes the following findings and conclusions:

There is no dispute as to the facts which have been stipulated in the pretrial order. In brief, L2 obtained a nonrevolving line of credit from plaintiff on November 25, 1981, in the amount of $1,451,005.00 and granted plaintiff a security interest in crops, livestock, equipment and goods and products and proceeds thereof. The printed form restricted the borrower from encumbering the assets to anyone else and from permitting sale or removal of the security without the written consent of plaintiff.

L2 sold and delivered to Coast at Burbank, Washington, on March 3 and 4, 1982, some 5,000 bushels of white wheat. L2 did not obtain plaintiff’s written consent to the sale, but it had been the custom of the parties over years of dealing not to observe this requirement before sale.

Coast sent L2 a check for $18,501.00 in payment. L2 delivered the check to plaintiff, and it was presented for payment on April 8. The bank refused to honor it as Coast had filed its Chapter 11 on April 7. Plaintiff returned the check to L2 and Coast has not paid for the wheat otherwise.

Coast sold wheat to Bunge in Oregon which included the comingled wheat received from L2 and received $361,800.00 from Bunge on March 22. This was placed in Coast’s regular bank account in the U.S. National Bank of Oregon. All of this money was spent by Coast before the end of March. Bunge did not pay the balance of $51,056.16 owed Coast for the wheat until June 10.

It was agreed in the pretrial order that L2 was never in default on the loan from plaintiff, nor did it fail to perform any covenant in the security agreement.

Plaintiff renewed L2’s line of credit November 24, 1982, and returned the 1981 [672]*672promissory note. L2 has been similarly financed for 18 years, with any unpaid balance from one year being included in the next year’s promissory note.

Plaintiff seeks reclamation of the wheat or its proceeds and claims conversion by the two banks as Coast has turned over substantial receipts from accounts receivable to the banks — primarily The Oregon Bank, which had also seized money in Coast’s bank account under its right of set off about the time of the filing of the Chapter 11. The wheat is now gone, and the claim is against the proceeds only.

By agreement of the parties, the court has not considered any question of marshaling nor of the right to the assets between the two banks and Coast’s trustee.

The wheat is a crop and the crop is a farm product and L2 was engaged in farming operations. The sale to Coast in Washington was therefore an exception to the rule that a buyer in the ordinary couse of business takes free of a security interest created by the seller whether or not he knows of its existence. UCC 9-301(1). If plaintiff has not lost its right to follow the wheat into Roast’s hands, its security interest continues also in identifiable proceeds.

The $361,800.00 paid by Bunge on March 22 and placed in Coast’s bank account was completely spent, and Coast had overdrawn its account by March 30. Coast then borrowed one million dollars from The Oregon Bank. What was left of this was seized by the bank on April 5 when the bank felt its position was insecure. The court does not accept plaintiff’s trust theory to give it a replacement interest in the funds borrowed from the bank, and holds that no identifiable proceeds from the Bunge payment remained at the time of the Chapter 11 filing either in the hands of Coast or the bank.

Bunge did not make the final payment of $51,056.16 for the wheat until June 10,-1982, and Coast’s bank account has never been below $20,000.00 since then. Since the total sale to Bunge was over $412,000.00, it is obvious that the L2 wheat was a very small part of such sale. Other growers, the banks, and the trustee also have a claim to the proceeds, and if plaintiff has not lost its security interest, it should be valid only as to that portion of the proceeds that the L2 wheat bears to the total sale. If the court finds in favor of plaintiff in following its security interest this far, the exact apportionment can be determined by stipulation of the parties.

Having recognized that the plaintiff’s claim, at best, is limited to less than $5,000.00, let us now consider the arguments as to whether it should be allowed at all. There are several hurdles the plaintiff must clear.

Since there are other PCA cases awaiting the outcome of this one, the court believes it desirable to touch on several of the questions raised. L2 delivered the wheat in the state of Washington, and absent a waiver of certain provisions in the security agreement, the wheat was still subject to the security interest of plaintiff.

Has plaintiff waived its security interest by permitting L2 to sell wheat without obtaining the prior written consent of plaintiff as provided in the security agreement? Plaintiff had been doing business with L2 for 18 years and never required L2 to obtain such consent before selling. It was understood that L2, upon receipt of the proceeds from the sale would turn over such payment to plaintiff, and L2 regularly did so. Their relationship was a very satisfactory one for both.

UCC 9-306(2) provides:

“Except where this Article otherwise provides, a security interest continues in collateral notwithstanding sale, exchange or other disposition thereof unless the disposition was authorized by the secured party in the security agreement or otherwise, and also continues in any identifiable proceeds including collections received by the debtor.” [emphasis added.]

While disposition was not authorized by the security agreement, defendants assert that it was authorized by the course of conduct. Plaintiff claims that the sale was authorized only on condition that the proceeds therefrom be turned over to plaintiff [673]*673and hence there could be no waiver before receipt of payment. Coast did give L2 a check in payment which was turned over to plaintiff, but plaintiff failed to negotiate it in time to clear before Coast’s Chapter 11, and plaintiff returned the dishonored check to L2. There had, therefore, been no payment for the wheat.

In the recent Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel decision, March 15,1983, of Halperin v. Tri-State Livestock Credit Corp., 28 B.R. 13, arising out of Arizona in the Ellsworth Chapter 7, the facts were almost identical to our present case. The panel followed the Tenth Circuit decision in First National Bank v. Iowa Beef Processors, 626 F.2d 764 (10 Cir.1980), and held that Tri-State’s security interest terminated when the cattle were transferred to Ells-worth with Tri-State’s authorization even though it was conditioned on subsequent receipt of the proceeds by Tri-State. The court distinguished between conditions precedent to authorization and conditions subsequent. The latter, in essence, make the buyer an insurer of acts beyond its control. This reasoning has merit, and the Washington Court of Appeals reached the same result in Southwest Washington Production Credit Ass’n v.

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31 B.R. 670, 36 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1753, 1983 Bankr. LEXIS 6045, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northwest-livestock-production-credit-assn-v-coast-trading-co-in-re-orb-1983.