United States v. Antenna Systems, Inc.

251 F. Supp. 1013, 3 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 258, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6920
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedMarch 16, 1966
DocketCiv. A. 2503
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 251 F. Supp. 1013 (United States v. Antenna Systems, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Antenna Systems, Inc., 251 F. Supp. 1013, 3 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 258, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6920 (D.N.H. 1966).

Opinion

CAFFREY, District Judge. *

This matter came before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment filed by the United States and by the trustee in bankruptcy of Antenna Systems, Inc. The suit began as a petition for injunctive relief in which the United States sought to obtain possession of its collateral under a loan agreement. By agreement of the parties, most of the disputed property was sold and the proceeds of the sale are being held in escrow pending a determination of the rights of the parties.

Antenna Systems, Inc. (Antenna) and the New England Merchants National Bank entered into a loan agreement on August 26, 1963, by the terms of which Antenna granted the following security interest to the bank:

“2.3 The Borrower hereby grants to the Financing Institution a security interest
(a) in the Borrower’s present and future inventory (including supplies, raw materials, work in process and finished goods), including but not limited to inventory acquired or produced by the Borrower for the purpose of performance of defense production contracts (as defined in the Guarantee Agreement) assigned to the Financing Institution;
(b) in all present and future contract rights to receive payments for inventory or for services performed or to be performed by the Borrower, including but not limited to rights under such assigned defense production contracts ;
(c) in all present and future accounts receivable, notes, drafts, acceptances and other forms of obligations and receivables for goods sold or leased by the Borrower or for services rendered by it and in all guaranties and securities therefor;
(d) in the proceeds of all such present and future accounts receivable, notes, drafts, acceptances, contract rights and other forms of obligations and receivables; and
(e) all furniture, fixtures, and equipment now owned and hereafter acquired by the Borrower.
Such security interest as the Financing Institution now has securing the Borrower’s present indebtedness to it shall continue under the Loan Agreement subject to the terms hereof.”

The agreement also designates that the debtor’s only place of business was at Grenier Field, Manchester, New Hampshire.

The United States guaranteed the loan. When Antenna defaulted on its obligations to the bank under the agreement, the bank endorsed the outstanding note of Antenna to the United States and assigned all collateral held by the bank under the loan agreement to the United States. Thereafter, a petition in bankruptcy was filed and a trustee was appointed for Antenna. A controversy has *1015 arisen between the trustee and the United States which presents the questions (1) whether the security agreement is sufficiently specific, and if so (2) whether certain property is subject to the security interest of the United States, and (3) whether an $8,000 payment to Antenna from one of its suppliers is subject to the security interest of the United States. A claim to certain property has also been filed on behalf of Raytheon Company. 1

(1) The trustee in bankruptcy of Antenna contends that the language “all furniture, fixtures, and equipment now owned and hereafter acquired by the borrower” does not reasonably identify the collateral as required by Sec. 9-110 of the Uniform Commercial Code. 2

I find and rule that the loan agreement reasonably identifies the collateral and that the United States has a security interest in all furniture, fixtures, and equipment of Antenna. National Cash Register Co. v. Firestone & Co., Inc., 346 Mass. 255, 191 N.E.2d 471 (1963); Thomson v. O. M. Scott Credit Corp., 28 Pa.Dist. & Co.R.2d 85 (Chester County Ct., Pa., 1962).

(2) The next issue in this case is whether the following property is covered by the security agreement:

a. All drawings, reports, catalogs, literature, etc.
b. All bids'; proposals, cost estimates, etc. completed or presently outstanding.
c. All proprietary tooling, including jigs, fixtures, patterns, core boxes, molds, templates, stampings, dies, truss boards, used to manufacture the following:
12' Reflectors WR-975 Horn Dual Polarized 16' “ WR-430 “
30' “ Waveguide components
40'
60'
85'
120'
Also included, but not specifically called out, would be catalog item type of equipment.

The trustee argues that these items of property are general intangibles as defined in Sec. 9-106 and, therefore, not subject to the security agreement, which, curiously enough, totally omits any reference to the category of general intangibles. The United States, however, contends that these items of property are not general intangibles but are “goods” under Sec. 9-105 (f), i. e., that these items are either inventory or equipment and, therefore, subject to the security interest granted by the loan agreement.

Mr. Charles W. Creaser, who was the President of Antenna from its inception until it went into bankruptcy, testified about the character of this property, what it is, what uses the company put it to, etc.

(a) The property listed in paragraph a. consists basically of the blueprints and technical data produced when the company’s engineering staff designed a product. In some instances, these drawings and blueprints related to a specific contract for design and development of a product for a particular customer. These were considered to be the property *1016 of the customer who had paid for the work. These blueprints were confidential and under no circumstances did or would Antenna give them to competitors of the customer, or use them on contracts with competitors of the customer. A second category of blueprints were those of standard products manufactured by Antenna and sold in the open market. These drawings in most cases were never released outside to other customers. In a third category were purely research and development blueprints and drawings which were also confidential. These related to basic research carried on by Antenna which might or might not develop a saleable product. All these blueprints and technical data were prepared primarily by Antenna’s engineering department, though at times consultants were hired who also prepared drawings and engineering reports.

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Bluebook (online)
251 F. Supp. 1013, 3 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 258, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6920, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-antenna-systems-inc-nhd-1966.