By: Derek Hawkins//October 7, 2019//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: I80 Equipment, LLC, v. First Midwest Bank
Case No.: 18-3291
Officials: KANNE, BARRETT, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Statutory Interpretation – Bankruptcy – UCC
This interlocutory bankruptcy appeal presents a matter of first impression for our court: whether Illinois’s version of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code requires a financing statement to contain within its four corners a specific description of secured collateral, or if incorporating a description by reference to an unattached security agreement sufficiently “indicates” the collateral. The bankruptcy court ruled that a financing statement fails to perfect a security interest unless it “contains” a separate and additional description of the collateral. Given the plain and ordinary meaning of the Illinois statute, and how courts typically treat financing statements, we disagree and reverse.
Reversed and remanded