Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-86-02469/USCOURTS-ca10-86-02469-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Hugh C. Best
Appellant
Horse Creek Farms
Not Party
Lincoln Trust Company
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

HORSE CREEK FARMS, ) 

) 

Plaintiff, ) 

) 

vs. ) No. 86-2469 

FILED 

United States Court of Appeals 

Tenth Circuit 

DEC .. 6 1990 

.ROBERT L. HOECKER 

Clerk 

) (D.C. No. 84-C-1608) 

) (Dist. of Colo.) 

) 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) 

) 

Defendant-Appel lee, ) 

) 

and ) 

) 

LINCOLN TRUST COMPANY, as Trustee ) 

for the Benefit of Hugh C. Best ) 

IRA Trust Account; LINCOLN TRUST ) 

COMPANY, as Trustee for the Benefit) 

of Florence K. Best IRA Trust ) 

Account; and HUGH C. BEST, an ) 

individual, ) 

) 

Defendants-Appellants. ) 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT 

Before MOORE and BARRETT, Circuit Judges, and BRIMMER*, District ,.,,, 

Judge. 

*The Honorable Clarence A. Brimmer, United States District Judge 

for District of Wyoming, sitting by designation. 

Lincoln Trust Company and Hugh Best appeal the denial of their 

motion for summary judgment and the grant of the United States' 

motion for summary judgment. 

Appellate Case: 86-2469 Document: 010110093952 Date Filed: 12/06/1990 Page: 1 
Horse Creek Farms brought this interpleader action to resolve 

the conflicting claims of the United States and of Lincoln Trust 

and Best to installment payments on a promissory note on which 

Horse Creek is payor. Horse Creek executed the note payable to 

Claude Ingram and others, together with a deed of trust to certain 

property located in Adams County, Colorado, in 1974. The note 

provided that the holders of the note will look only to the deed 

of trust for satisfaction of the obligation on the note in the 

event of default. 

In 1978, 1979 and 1983, the Internal Revenue Service filed 

notices of tax liens in Jefferson County, Colorado, Ingram's county 

of residence, for taxes owed to the government by Ingram. In 1984, 

Ingram assigned portions of his interest in the note to Lincoln 

Trust and Best. The United States acknowledges that Lincoln Trust 

and Best purchased Ingram's interest in the note without actual 

knowledge of the tax liens against it. 

Colorado law requires that federal tax liens against real 

property be filed in the county in which the property is located. 

Liens against personal property are filed in the county where the 

interest holder resides. The United States District Court for the 

District of Colorado found that the note was an interest in 

personal property, not real property, and that it was not a 

negotiable instrument. 

were properly filed. 

conclusion. 

Thus, the court concluded, the tax liens 

Lincoln Trust and Best appeal this 

We have considered the appellants' assertions of error and 

2 

Appellate Case: 86-2469 Document: 010110093952 Date Filed: 12/06/1990 Page: 2 
find them to be without merit. The order of the United States 

District Court for the District of Colorado dated April 22, 1986, 

concluding that an interest in a promissory note is an interest in 

intangible property, and therefore the federal tax lien on the 

Horse Creek promissory note was properly filed is AFFIRMED for 

substantially the same reason therein set forth. The mandate shall 

issue forthwith. 

3 

Entered for the Court: 

CLARENCE A. BRIMMER 

District Court Judge 

Appellate Case: 86-2469 Document: 010110093952 Date Filed: 12/06/1990 Page: 3