Opinion ID: 2412679
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The filing requirement

Text: The subject of section 4-9-401 is [t]he proper place to file in order to perfect a security interest.... Subsections (a) and (b) deal with security interests in specific items such as farm equipment, farm products, timber, and minerals. Subsection (c) provides, in relevant part: In all other cases, in the office of the Secretary of State and in addition, if the debtor has a place of business in only one county of this state, also in the office of the clerk of the circuit court and ex officio recorder of such county.... [Emphasis supplied.] The bank's filing with the circuit clerk on November 7, 1986, would have perfected its security interest only if it had also filed with the secretary of state and if Bob's had been doing business only in Prairie County. We find no authority in support of the trial court's apparent conclusion that, because Affiliated kept separate billing records for Scotty's or Bob's Thriftway, that Bob's could be considered to be doing business only in Prairie County. Even if that conclusion were supportable, the bank would not have been entitled to priority on the basis of a first filing. It had not complied with the first requirement of filing with the office of secretary of state until November 25, 1986, which was after Affiliated had filed with both the office of the secretary of state and the Prairie County Circuit Clerk. Although the first filing was by the bank, the bank was not the first to file correctly which, in these circumstances, is required in order for it to have priority over Affiliated, which was the first to file correctly. B. Clark, The Law of Secured Transactions § 3.8[1] (Cumm.Supp. No. 3, 1987). See also J. White and R. Summers, Uniform Commercial Code, § 25-4 (2nd ed. 1980). If the bank is to prevail, it must be on a basis other than its contention that it filed correctly and filed first.