United States v. Georgia Vegetables Co.

123 B.R. 456, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16798, 1990 WL 257276
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedDecember 7, 1990
DocketCiv. A. No. 88-56-VAL (WDO)
StatusPublished

This text of 123 B.R. 456 (United States v. Georgia Vegetables Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Georgia Vegetables Co., 123 B.R. 456, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16798, 1990 WL 257276 (M.D. Ga. 1990).

Opinion

ORDER

OWENS, District Judge.

In 1982, at a time when they were indebted on a secured basis to Farmers Home Administration for over $600,000.00, Warren F. Paulk and Fred D. Paulk, d/b/a Paulk Farms, grew and sold $305,643.00 worth of bell peppers, cucumbers and snap-beans to defendant Georgia Vegetable Company, Inc. and did not remit the proceeds to Farmers Home Administration.

The bell peppers, cucumbers and snapbe-ans were grown on some 300 acres of land in Atkinson County, Georgia that Messrs. Paulk rented from Jimmy B. Metts. Jimmy B. Metts did not own the land. Mr. Metts’ wife, Betty Fender Metts, upon her father’s death on May 20, 1958, had inherited a life estate in the property. Mr. Metts looked after his wife’s property and in doing so rented it for her to Messrs. Paulk with the understanding that the Paulks would install a center pivot irrigation system and pay Mrs. Metts $7,500.00 rent (30 acres at $25.00 per acre) per year for ten years. Unable to finance the center pivot irrigation, the Paulks renegotiated with Mr. Metts, as a result of which Mr. Metts agreed to install and finance the center pivot system and the Paulks agreed to pay him the $12,100 plus interest in annual payments on the $121,000.00 principal and [457]*457interest Mr. Metts owed for the irrigation system and pay Mrs. Metts $7,500.00 per year land rent. Neither agreement was in writing, but pursuant to the latter the Paulks were growing vegetables on the Metts’ farm.

The Farmers Home Administration received five promissory notes from Messrs. Paulk and received and recorded five security agreements and financing statements giving notice that Warren F. Paulk and Fred D. Paulk were indebted to Farmers Home Administration on, among other things, crops growing or to be grown on the farm or other real estate owned by Jimmy B. Metts of Willacoochee, Georgia on County Road, Land Lot # 26 in the Tenth Land District (Exhibit A).

Georgia Vegetables’ sole stockholder, Robert Grist, unfamiliar with the Uniform Commercial Code in general and Uniform Commercial Code financing statements in particular, did not check at the county courthouse to see if Messrs. Paulk were indebted to anyone on a secured basis. Faced with the United States’ claim of conversion of mortgaged property, Georgia Vegetables, nevertheless, claims that had its representatives gone to the courthouse they would not have been put on notice of the Farmers Home Administration’s secured interest because the financing statement as required by O.C.G.A. § 11-9-402(1) and (5), to wit:

11-9-402. Formal requisites of financing statement; amendments; mortgage as financing statement.
(1) A financing statement is sufficient if it gives the names of the debtor and the secured party, is signed by the debt- or, gives an address of the secured party from which information concerning the security interest may be obtained, gives a mailing address of the debtor, and contains a statement indicating the types, or describing the items, of collateral. A financing statement may be filed before a security agreement is made or a security interest otherwise attaches. When the financing statement covers crops growing or to be grown, or minerals or accounts subject to subsection (5) of Code Section 11-9-103, or when the financing statement is filed as a fixture filing (Code Section 11-9-313) and the collateral is goods which are or are to become fixtures, the statement must also comply with subsection (5) of this Code section. A copy of the security agreement is sufficient as a financing statement if it contains the above information and is signed by the debtor.
¡k * * * * *
(5) A financing statement covering crops growing or to be grown, or minerals or the like (including oil and gas) or accounts subject to subsection (5) of Code Section 11-9-103, or a financing statement indexed as a fixture filing (Code Section 11-9-313) must show that it covers this type of collateral, must recite that it is to be indexed in the real estate records, and the financing statement must contain a description of the real estate. If the debtor does not have an interest of record in the real estate, the financing statement must show the name of the record owner or record lessee.
*k :k sk *k * *
(8) A financing statement substantially complying with the requirements of this Code section is effective even though it contains minor errors which are not seriously misleading, (emphasis added),

did not state on farm or other real estate owned by Betty Fender Metts. That omission, they suggest, invalidates the security interest Farmers Home Administration would otherwise have had.

Warren F. Paulk and Fred W. Paulk, d/b/a Paulk Farms, commenced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Georgia in the fall of 1982. On May 5, 1983, a consent order resolving Farmers Home Administration’s complaint as to debtor’s failure to pay Farmers Home Administration the proceeds of their 1982 crop was entered (Exhibit B). Defendant directs the court’s attention to the following portions thereof:

2. During the pendency of the Chapter 11 case, Paulk Farms has used ap[458]*458proximately $225,000 from the proceeds of their 1982 crops on which PHA had a valid and perfected security interest which such proceeds constituted cash collateral. Such proceeds were used without the Consent of PHA and without the prior authorization of the Bankruptcy Court. Such proceeds have been utilized by Paulk Farms to cultivate, plant and maintain the above enumerated 1983 crops.
3. Paulk Farms has also obtained credit in the normal course of business from farm suppliers in the cultivation, planting and maintenance of the 1983 crops.
FHA and Paulk Farms have reached an agreement regarding the continued use of a portion of FHA’s cash collateral and other collateral,
******
7. Pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 364(a), Paulk Farms may continue to use the $225,000 which was or is cash collateral and which is otherwise secured by a crop lien pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 552(b), for which a new financing statement will be filed, and so long as debtor obeys the order of the Court above such continued pre-existing lien shall constitute adequate protection for FHA and the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. § 362 shall remain in effect. FHA’s pre-existing lien shall not extend to a sum greater than $225,000 net proceeds from the 1983 crops.

and having done so, contends that the United States made an intentional and voluntary relinquishment of its security interest in the 1982 crop proceeds and substituted therefor a security interest in the Paulk’s 1983 crops which were not converted by defendant. For authority, defendant points to Matter of Thomas, 43 B.R.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
123 B.R. 456, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16798, 1990 WL 257276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-georgia-vegetables-co-gamd-1990.