Perez v. Bank of Nova Scotia

12 V.I. 274, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5584
CourtDistrict Court, Virgin Islands
DecidedSeptember 30, 1975
DocketCivil No. 203-1975
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 12 V.I. 274 (Perez v. Bank of Nova Scotia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perez v. Bank of Nova Scotia, 12 V.I. 274, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5584 (vid 1975).

Opinion

YOUNG, District Judge

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

This is an action for interpleader in which the plaintiff, the Chief Deputy Marshal of the Municipal Court of the Virgin Islands, seeks a determination as to which of the two defendants, Bank of Nova Scotia (“Bank”) and Sunny Isle Shopping Center, Inc. (“Sunny Isle”) is entitled to the $16,000.00 proceeds of a Marshal’s sale. On August 1, 1975, the Bank brought a cross-claim against defendant Sunny Isle alleging a prior and superior interest in the sale proceeds and also moved this Court for entry of summary judgment on the cross-claim. On September 18,1975, Sunny Isle filed its cross-claim against the Bank seeking a judgment against the Bank in the sum of $44,125.00. [It is not made clear why Sunny Isle believes that it should have a judgment against the Bank for the payment of the judgment obtained against the judgment letter. I will presume Sunny Isle merely means to press a lien against the sale proceeds of $16,000.00 superior to that of the Bank.] Sunny Isle has also moved for Summary Judgment on its cross-claim “against cross-claimant Bank of Nova Scotia”.

I

BACKGROUND FACTS

On August 25, 1970, Sunny Isle entered into a lease agreement with Abdeljaber A. Suid, as the sole proprietor of the Worldwide Fashion Center, hereinafter sometimes referred to as “Tenant”, “Suid” or “Worldwide Fashion Center”, for the rental of space at the shopping center. The agreement provided, inter alia, that the landlord shall have a lien for all rentals due from the tenant upon all goods, [277]*277wares, equipment, fixtures, furniture and other personal property of the tenant situated on the rental premises. The lease agreement was not recorded at this time.

On December 7, 1970, the Bank entered into a Security Agreement for General Inventory Loans with Suid. The agreement provided that all loans under this financing arrangement were secured by a security interest in all furniture, fixtures, equipment and stock relative to Suid’s operation of the Worldwide Fashion Center. This agreement covered after-acquired property and secured future advances by the Bank. Pursuant to the agreement, the sum of $50,000.00 was advanced. Two weeks later, on December 21, 1970, the Bank filed with the Recorder of Deeds, a financing statement, together with the security agreement, describing the same property.

The next significant date is March 13,1972, when Sunny Isle filed a financing statement and copy of the lease contract with the Recorder of Deeds, said statement covering the same property described in the lease agreement. Meanwhile, Suid had gone into arrears on the rent and on January 24,1973, Sunny Isle filed a complaint for rent due in the sum of $41,601.25. On April 4, 1973, pursuant to the consent and stipulation of the parties, judgment was entered in favor of Sunny Isle against Suid in that amount, together with interest at the rate of 4% per annum.

When Suid failed to make the payments the store was closed by Sunny Isle and the inventory on the premises seized pursuant to the lease agreement. On March 6, 1975, plaintiff, the Chief Deputy Marshal of the Municipal Court, sold this inventory pursuant to a writ of execution obtained by Sunny Isle. Proceeds totaling approximately $16,000.00 were realized on the sale. Each defendant [making allowance for Sunny Isle’s inartful pleading for judgment against the Bank] claims that it is entitled to the entire proceeds of sale. The Bank claims that a total of $32,693.71, [278]*278plus some uncounted interest, remains owing to it from Suid.

II

SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure summary judgment is appropriately granted only where all of the written submissions before the court show that “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law”. This, in my belief, is such a case.

Defendant Sunny Isle places itself in the unusual position of opposing the Bank’s motion for summary judgment by arguing that there are genuine issues as to material facts yet to be resolved, but then raises such a motion itself, upon which it could only prevail if there were no genuine dispute as to the material facts. I cannot accept the apparent explanation that the facts needed to decide Sunny Isle’s motion are not in dispute, while those pertinent to the Bank’s motion are. The Court has reviewed in considerable detail all of the pleadings, affidavits and various memoranda. I conclude that all of the material facts are before the Court, that these facts are not in dispute, and that judgment can be entered as a matter of law.

III

WHICH PARTY IS ENTITLED TO THE PROCEEDS

The basic problem before this Court is to determine what type of interest each of the defendants had in the property of the Worldwide Fashion Center and subsequently in the proceeds of the sale of that property, and to establish the appropriate priority between those interests. Toward that end, the crucial issue is the applicability of the, Uniform Commercial Code to this situation. If the Code applies, this becomes a matter of determining the type of interest each [279]*279party has, and then applying the Code’s priority rules. If the Code is not applicable to these transactions, then we must look to the law outside of the Code for the answer.

Section 9 — 104 of Title 11A of the Virgin Islands Code provides, “This article does not apply... (b) to a landlord’s lien.”. Thus, upon a superficial look, it would appear that the UCC does not deal with the relative priorities of a landlord’s lien for rent as against a secured party with respect to collateral at the rented premises. The better and prevailing rule, however, is that the Code’s exclusion refers only to statutory, nonconsensual landlord’s liens. Where, as here, the lien was agreed to by the parties through a contract, the Code provisions should and do apply.

In Leckie Freeburn Coal Company v. Hamblin, 405 F.2d 1043 (6th Cir. 1969), the Sixth Circuit held that a lease granting a lien on the lessee’s equipment to secure the payment of rent was governed by the Uniform Commercial Code. The court concluded that the Code’s exclusion of landlord’s liens applies only to those created by statute, and not by contract. Moreover, filing the lease in the real estate records did not effectuate a perfected security interest in the equipment under the Code.

Likewise, In re King Furniture City, Inc., 240 F.Supp. 453 (E.D. Ark. 1965) held that where a lease of premises gave the landlord a lien on the personal property of the tenant located on the premises to secure rent payments, this was a contractual lien to which the UCC applied, and not a statutory landlord’s lien within the Code exclusion. Therefore, the Court concluded that it was necessary for the landlord to file a financing statement to perfect his security interest under Article 9.

The plaintiff cites In re Einhorn Bros., Inc., 272 F.2d 434 (3d Cir.

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Related

Bank of Nova Scotia v. Four Winds Plaza Corp.
56 V.I. 45 (Superior Court of The Virgin Islands, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
12 V.I. 274, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perez-v-bank-of-nova-scotia-vid-1975.