Farmer’s and Miner’s Bank v. Lee (2017)

Full fifteen-page memorandum opinion and order retrieved from GovInfo, including all grounds and the final possession order. The parties consented to the magistrate judge’s jurisdiction.

Facts

The bank financed a Caterpillar loader and timely continued its UCC filing. A mine lessee and another company asserted mineral-leasehold liens, storage/transport/repair claims and possession of a loader owned by their mining contractor. Their claimed lien omitted the equipment-description exhibit. They also argued that the bank’s collateral-deletion amendment erased the loader from its filing.

Complete holdings and disposition

1. KRS 376.140 did not reach the contractor-owned loader merely because it operated on the lessee’s mine. The contract expressly negated agency; the lien statute covered the lessee’s interest.
2. The claimants also failed to produce an adequate description connecting their filed lien to the disputed loader or identify the relevant leasehold, independently defeating their asserted lien.
3. The bank’s properly authorized UCC amendment deleted the equipment listed in that amendment, not all the original collateral omitted from it. Its perfected interest in this loader continued.
4. Even assuming a valid 376.140 lien, incorporated 376.010 priority required the claimant’s earlier lien/expectation filing; the bank’s 2008 filing preceded the claimants’ 2013 notice.
5. central-trust-v-dans-marina-1993 was distinguishable: that case applied the different 376.270 possessory repair/storage grant, not mineral-leasehold 376.140.

The court granted the bank partial summary judgment, denied defendants’ motion, and awarded the bank possession under the security agreement and 355.9-601. A status conference remained; this was not a final appellate adjudication of every claim. See opinion pp. 7–15.

Treatment and practical limits

This federal trial opinion applies Kentucky law and is not Kentucky appellate precedent. Its full holding is useful for differentiating the collateral/filing/priority requirements of 376.140 from 376.270. Current 376.140 and 376.010 texts were retrieved: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=35296 and https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=54156 .

No comprehensive later-history certificate is represented; use the identified holding with current statutes, rather than describing it as an unrestricted right to dispose of another owner’s equipment.

Applies in →

kentucky · equipment-and-machinery · ucc-article-9-dispositions

Legal information, not legal advice. Verify primary sources and current law before acting.