Texas Kenworth Co. v. First National Bank of Bethany

1977 OK 80, 564 P.2d 222, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1512, 1977 Okla. LEXIS 561
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 3, 1977
DocketNo. 48170
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 1977 OK 80 (Texas Kenworth Co. v. First National Bank of Bethany) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Kenworth Co. v. First National Bank of Bethany, 1977 OK 80, 564 P.2d 222, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1512, 1977 Okla. LEXIS 561 (Okla. 1977).

Opinion

DAVISON, Justice:

Appellee, Texas Kenworth Company, brought a conversion action against the appellant, First National Bank of Bethany, alleging that the Bank had converted the proceeds realized at the sale of four trucks. Both parties involved in the appeal were secured creditors who had perfected security interests in the four trucks sold, by virtue of their dealings with debtor, Paul Se-well, owner of the Paul Sewell Trucking Company. As the proceeds realized at the sale of the four trucks were not sufficient to make whole either of the secured creditors, the creditor having priority is entitled to all the proceeds from the sale. The complete details of the complex business transaction involved are not germane to the issue of priority, therefore need not be discussed here. The basic facts germane to the issue of priority are as follows:

(1) In March, 1969, Texas Kenworth Company engaged in the business of selling and repairing truck tractors, sold four Kenworth Trucks to debtor Sewell. Four separate security agreements were executed, one for each truck, and four separate security interests were perfected.
(2) In August, 1971, First National Bank of Bethany made a loan to debtor Sewell, taking a security interest in all equipment now owned or hereinafter owned by the debtor.
(3) In 1972, both the Bank and Kenworth entered into other business transactions with' debtor Sewell in which both the Bank and Kenworth took security interests in the four trucks involved in the litigation.

All the security interests involved were perfected by filing. Since none of the special Sections on priority are applicable, 12A O.S.1971 § 9-312(5) is controlling. That Subsection provides in part:

“In all cases not governed' by other rules stated in this section * ■* * , priority between conflicting security interests in the same collateral shall be determined as follows:
(a) in order of filing if both are per- ■ fected by filing, regardless of which [224]*224security interest attached first under Section 9-204(1) and whether it attached before or after filing; * *

A security interest created under the Uniform Commercial Code does not necessarily reflect a static relationship between the debtor and the secured party. The relationship between the parties may be made flexible in two ways: (1) the amount of the collateral which is subject to the security agreement may increase or decrease, and (2) the indebtedness with which the collateral is charged may vary. Accordingly, any security agreement may include an after acquired property interest, a future advance interest, or both.

In the case now before us, since both secured creditors perfected by filing, the secured creditor who first files has priority over the other secured creditor. Since Ken-worth perfected by filing first, it would appear that Kenworth had priority. However, the record reflects that the 1969 security agreements only charged the four trucks with Sewell’s debt for the purchase price of the trucks and related cost, and that those debts had been satisfied when the Bank took possession of the trucks. Kenworth argues that the 1969 security agreements also charged the four trucks with future advances made to Sewell. If this is the case, Kenworth will be entitled to first priority because Sewell’s debts to Ken-worth, arising out of subsequent transactions of the same type, have not been satisfied. The question before us is whether the 1969 security agreements subjected the collateral, the four trucks, to future advances made to Sewell.

Title 12A O.S.1971 § 9-204(5) provides:

“Obligations covered by a security agreement may include future advances or other value whether or not the advances or value are given pursuant to commitment.” [Emphasis added] Comment 8 of the Uniform Commercial

Code under § 9-204 provides:

“Under subsection (5) collateral may secure future as well as present advances when the security agreement so provides.
At common law and under chattel mortgage statutes there seems to have been a vaguely articulated prejudice against future advance agreements comparable to the prejudice against after-acquired property interests. Although only a very few jurisdictions went to the length of invalidating interests claimed by virtue of future advances, judicial limitations severely restricted the usefulness of such arrangements. A common limitation was that an interest claimed in collateral existing at the time the security transaction was entered into for advances made thereafter was good only to the extent that the original security agreement specified the amount of such later advances and even the times at which they should be made. In line with the policy of this Article toward after-acquired property interests this subsection validates the future advance interest, provided only that the obligation be covered by the security agreement. . . . ” [Emphasis added]

In his treatise, Security Interests in Personal Property, Professor Gilmore discusses Section 9-204(5) in light of Comment 8. Professor Gilmore states:

“Article 9 puts no express limitation on the validity of future advance arrangements. Section 9-204(5) provides: ‘Obligations covered by security agreement may include future advances or other value whether or not the advances or value are given pursuant to commitment’. The relevant Comment, after referring to the ‘vaguely articulated prejudice against future advance agreements’ under prior law, remarks that ‘this subsection validates the future advance interest, provided only that the obligation be covered by the security agreement’.
“It is not entirely clear what the phrase ‘covered by a [the] security agreement’, which appears in both text and Comment, means. Nor is it clear that the phrase is used in the same sense in its two appearances. The Comment seems to suggest that the phrase is a limitation: any future advance agreement is valid, provided [225]*225that it is somehow ‘covered by the security agreement’. The only apparent meaning of the phrase, if it is taken as a limitation, is that there must be a clause In the security agreement which clearly provides for future advances. Absent such a clause, future advances would net be ‘covered’; a new loan would require a separate security agreement. Such a limitation would indeed be in line with the pre-Code case law. It is much less clear from the text than it is from the Comment that the phrase is used as a limitation; in the text it could easily be read as merely descriptive, meaning no more than ‘any secured obligation.’ The reading suggested by the Comment is, however, a plausible construction of the text, even if it is not the only possible one.” 2 Gilmore, Security Interests in Personal Property (1965), Pages 931-932. [Emphasis added and footnotes omitted]

Professor Gilmore’s conclusion, that in order for a security agreement to cover future advances, the security agreement must clearly specify that the security interest in the collateral is meant to secure future advances, has received judicial acceptance.1

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Bluebook (online)
1977 OK 80, 564 P.2d 222, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1512, 1977 Okla. LEXIS 561, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-kenworth-co-v-first-national-bank-of-bethany-okla-1977.