Southern Horizons Aviation v. Farmers & Merchants Bank of Lakeland (1998)
Citation: 231 Ga. App. 55, 497 S.E.2d 637 · Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia · Decided: March 10, 1998 · Docket: A97A1961 · Opinion: Johnson, J.
Source note (2026-10-18):
- Links on this page to
https://static.case.law/ga-app/231/cases/0055-01.jsonare an (unofficial Caselaw Access Project copy, retrieved before 2026-10-18; host disallows automated access); no official or otherwise permitted full-text copy was located on 2026-10-18.
Facts
A bank financed a cropdusting airplane and filed a state financing statement. Its FAA filing was initially returned for an omitted serial number and recorded later. Southern Horizons repaired the airplane, retained it while allowing cropdusting flights, and sought foreclosure in superior court under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-550. It never recorded its asserted mechanic’s lien with the FAA. The bank intervened; the trial court found the bank’s interest superior.
Holding
Affirmed. The unrecorded mechanic’s claim could not defeat the bank’s federally recorded security interest. The court additionally held that the bank prevailed under the Georgia perfection and priority provisions applied to the transaction.
Reasoning
The court applied federal aircraft recording requirements and Philko Aviation v. Shacket, while recognizing that state law determines priority once the federal recording condition is met. Its state-law discussion addressed § 44-14-363 and former Article 9 sections, including former § 11-9-310. Filing a foreclosure action did not substitute for FAA recording.
Practical impact
The opinion supplies an actual Georgia aircraft-lien foreclosure example under § 44-14-550 and shows the risk of treating retention or state-court filing as sufficient against an FAA recorded lender. It is not a construction of the later 2010 wording of § 44-14-518 and does not conclusively settle priority under that later statute. See georgia, aircraft-mechanics-liens-and-non-judicial-sales, aircraft-title-liens-and-the-faa-registry.
Good-law status
needs_verification. The complete opinion was downloaded and read on 2026-10-17 from the unofficial CAP reproduction. Statutory renumbering and the 2010 aircraft-lien amendment require separate treatment; no complete later-treatment review was established.
Legal information, not legal advice. Verify current authority before relying on this summary.