Secured Transactions History: The Northern Struggle to Defeat the Judgment Lien in the Pre-Chattel Mortgage Act Era

摘要

This article examines the readily findable pre-chattel mortgage act appellate opinions for factual data bearing on the early use of the non possessory secured transaction. These decisions range from inception of the non possessory secured transaction fostered by the 1677 Statute of Frauds to the alteration of the priority rule by the chattel mortgage acts. The first three sections treat the northern United States. The first section explores the parties involved in the early transactions and examines the structure of the early nonpossessory secured transaction. The second section plumbs the litigation to enforce the early nonpossessory secured transaction and investigates the four rules the American courts used when third parties challenged the nonpossessory secured transaction. The third section determines the social groups behind a particular rule. Equipment manufacturers and institutional lenders, accurate draftsmen, risked loss under the rebuttable rule's jury determination. The fourth section deals with the English opinions for confirmation of the American trends.