Paul Donald v. Madison Industries, Inc., a Corporation, and the United States of America

483 F.2d 837, 32 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 73
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedAugust 28, 1973
Docket72-1879
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 483 F.2d 837 (Paul Donald v. Madison Industries, Inc., a Corporation, and the United States of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paul Donald v. Madison Industries, Inc., a Corporation, and the United States of America, 483 F.2d 837, 32 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 73 (10th Cir. 1973).

Opinion

LARAMORE, Senior Judge.

The question presented by this appeal involves the relative priority of a Federal tax lien and a private security interest to the proceeds from the sale of certain property of a taxpayer-debtor, Madison Industries. Resolution of this question devolves to an interpretation and application of section 6323(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended.

To the extent relevant herein, the facts disclose that in 1966, Madison Industries (taxpayer) borrowed $40,000 from First National Bank of Madison, Kansas (First National). As collateral for the loan, taxpayer executed a “security interest” in

all inventory, accounts, machinery, equipment, finished products and products being manufactured. Also everything connected with said business in any way.

In November 1968, the 1966 First National note was transferred to Alliance Capital Corporation of Fort Worth, Texas (Alliance Capital). Because Alliance Capital extended additional credit to the taxpayer, a replacement promissory note and security agreement were executed *840 granting Alliance Capital a security interest in the following items:

All items of personal property, wherever situated, including, but pot limited to: cars, trucks, inventory, accounts receivable, equipment used in connection with manufacturing, tools, finished products, work in process, now owned or purchased as a replacement, or purchased as new equipment in the future. This is intended to cover everything owned by this business in any fashion.

Thereafter, these security agreements were assigned to Paul Donald, plaintiff-appellant. On December 12, 1969, the Internal Revenue Service filed its first notice of tax liens against the taxpayer in the appropriate state and local offices. In July, August and September of 1970, First National made additional loans to the taxpayer based on new security agreements, which were ultimately assigned to Donald in September, 1971. The government seized all of the taxpayer’s property on September 9, 1970, but three days later released all of it back to the taxpayer, except for six trailers (five manufactured by taxpayer and one trade-in) and one pick-up truck. 1

In November 1970, Donald initiated the present action in the District Court of Lyons County, Kansas, seeking'to enjoin the United States from disposing of the taxpayer’s assets then in possession of the Internal Revenue Service. The United States removed the action to the United States District Court and filed a cross-complaint asking for an adjudication of the relative priorities of the various liens on taxpayer’s property. By agreement between the parties, the assets in issue were sold at a private sale and the $11,000 proceeds deposited in the Court Registry. From a decision in favor of the United States, Donald has prosecuted the present appeal.

The lower court found the basic issue herein to be whether the appellant’s security interest was “choate” at the time the Federal tax liens were filed. Pursuant to a thesis tendered by the government, resolution of this “choateness” issue was seen as being dependent on whether the property subject to the security agreements was described with sufficient “specificity,” i. e., was it “identifiable.” Based in part on an interpretation of Illinois v. Campbell, 329 U.S. 362, 67 S.Ct. 340, 91 L.Ed. 348 (1946), the District Court concluded that the security agreement’s coverage of “finished goods” was not sufficiently specific, since that description encompassed a class of goods which was constantly changing and only identifiable at some particular point in time. As a result, the security interest was found to be “inchoate,” and thus inferior to the Federal tax lien in priority.

A review of the pertinent Federal law in this area convinces us that we must reject as inappropriate and out-of-date the legal criteria advanced by the government and adopted by the lower court for resolution of the lien priority issue presented herein. While we do not find the “choateness doctrine” totally obsolete, it appears that the government would have us revitalize the doctrine to its pristine form by completely ignoring the Federal Lien Act of 1966, and emasculating significant elements of section 6323 which were specifically designed to alter the effects of said doctrine. 2 We cannot concur in such a scheme.

Moreover, even if this case had arisen prior to the Federal Lien Act, we would harbor grave doubts as to whether the choateness doctrine would have dictated the degree of specificity which the government would have us find. Our dubiousness stems from the government’s reliance on the “specificity” criteria in Illinois v. Campbell, supra, a case arising under the Federal insolvency priority statute, R.S. § 3466, which was later construed as giving virtually absolute *841 priority to Federal liens in insolvency situations, unless the secured party had already gained either possession or title to the property. United States v. Gilbert Associates, 345 U.S. 361, 73 S.Ct. 701, 97 L.Ed. 1071 (1953). Appellee correctly points out that United States v. Security Trust and Savings Bank, 340 U.S. 47, 71 S.Ct. 111, 95 L.Ed. 53 (1950), also applied the general choateness doctrine to a case involving the predecessor tax lien priority statute, and in United States v. R. F. Ball Construction Co., 355 U.S. 587, 78 S.Ct. 442, 2 L.Ed.2d 510 (1958), it was established that the doctrine is also applicable to a consensual lien created by contract between the parties.

However, the government fails to note that in United States v. Vermont, 377 U.S. 351, 84 S.Ct. 1267, 12 L.Ed.2d 370 (1964), the Supreme Court explicitly held that the degree of “specificity” required under the Federal tax lien provisions is not as great as that which is necessary in cases involving insolvent debtors under R.S. § 3466 — such as Illinois v. Campbell, supra. In fact, it was held in Vermont that to be choate a state lien need not attach to specifically identified portions of a taxpayer’s property, as it must in the case of a lien on an insolvent debtor, but instead may cover “all property and rights to property, whether real or personal, belonging to such [taxpayer].” 377 U.S., at 352, 84 S.Ct., at 1267. Since this all-encompassing description was found sufficient to establish the identity of the property subject to the lien for purposes of the choateness doctrine in. Vermont, we fail to see how the descriptions herein, “finished goods” (among others), could be faulted as being too broad or unspecific.

In any event, we no longer need rely solely on Vermont and its predecessors to light the way, for Congress provided us with new guide posts in the Federal Lien Act of 1966.

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Bluebook (online)
483 F.2d 837, 32 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paul-donald-v-madison-industries-inc-a-corporation-and-the-united-ca10-1973.