Section 13 Continued Perfection Upon Submitting Missouri Notice of Lien

• Library: Secured Transactions 2005

Missouri provided a non-uniform addition to U.C.C. § 9-303 (2001) to switch coverage of vehicle lien issues from Article 9 to § 301.600, RSMo Supp. 2004. Compare § 400.9-303, RSMo Supp. 2004, with U.C.C. § 9-303 (2001). Missouri’s non-uniform subsection (d) of § 400.9-303 reads as follows:

(d) When a notice of lien is filed in accordance with chapter 301 or 306, RSMo, then the lien is perfected and this chapter shall not govern perfection or nonperfection or the priority of the lien even though a valid application for a certificate of title and the applicable fee was not delivered to the appropriate authority or the certificate of title was not issued by such authority.

Chapter 306, RSMo, referred to above, covers watercraft.

Section 400.9-303(d) applies when the lender files a notice of lien. Whether the lender should do so is a conclusion to be reached after considering what might happen to its perfected

lien if it does not. The discussion above has suggested certain factors that are relevant in reaching that conclusion.

Once the notice of lien is submitted, § 400.9-303(d) states flatly that “this chapter [i.e., Chapter 400, the Missouri Uniform Commercial Code] shall not govern perfection or nonperfection or the priority of the lien . . . .” Id. If the command of this language is taken literally, without reference to any other provision, none of the rules apply that were discussed above in connection with §§ 400.9-311, 400.9-316, and 400.9-337, RSMo Supp. 2004. (Presumably, the General Assembly did not intend that § 400.9-303 itself would be rendered inapplicable by this clause, but it does not appear that the language of subsection (d) was drafted with an eye to possible circularity problems. Other circularity problems appear in later sections but are not flagged in this chapter.) Instead, counsel wrestles with the different rules that are found in § 301.600.4.

The opening paragraph of § 301.600.4 reads as follows:

4. If a motor vehicle or trailer is subject to a lien or encumbrance when brought into this state, the validity and effect of the lien or encumbrance is determined by the law of the jurisdiction where the motor vehicle or trailer was when the lien or encumbrance attached, subject to the following:

The language of this paragraph raises certain preliminary questions. First, § 400.9-303(d) speaks in terms of “[w]hen a notice of lien is filed,” while § 301.600.4 speaks of when the motor vehicle is “brought into this state.” In the...