(a) As used in this section:
(1) “Filing” means:
(A) With respect to a judgment lien on personal property, the filing of a notice of judgment lien in the office of the Secretary of State to create a judgment lien on personal property under this article.
(B) With respect to a security interest or agricultural lien, as defined in paragraph (5) of subdivision (a) of Section 9102 of the Commercial Code, the filing of a financing statement pursuant to Division 9 (commencing with Section 9101) of the Commercial Code.
(2) “Perfection” means perfection of a security interest or agricultural lien pursuant to Division 9 (commencing with Section 9101) of the Commercial Code.
(3) “Personal property” means:
(A) With respect to a judgment lien on personal property, the property to which a judgment lien has attached pursuant to this article.
(B) With respect to a security interest, the collateral subject to a security interest pursuant to Division 9 (commencing with Section 9101) of the Commercial Code.
(C) With respect to an agricultural lien, the farm products subject to an agricultural lien pursuant to Division 9 (commencing with Section 9101) of the Commercial Code.
(4) “Purchase money security interest” has the same meaning as used in Section 9103 of the Commercial Code.
(b) Except as provided in subdivisions (d), (e), (g), and (h), priority between a judgment lien on personal property and a conflicting security interest or agricultural lien in the same personal property shall be determined according to this subdivision. Conflicting interests rank according to priority in time of filing or perfection. In the case of a judgment lien, priority dates from the time filing is first made covering the personal property. In the case of a security interest or agricultural lien, priority dates from the earlier of the time a filing is first made covering the personal property or the time the security interest or agricultural lien is first perfected, if there is no period thereafter when there is neither filing nor perfection.
(c) For the purposes of subdivision (b), a date of filing or perfection as to personal property is also a date of filing or perfection as to proceeds.
(d) A purchase money security interest has priority over a conflicting judgment lien on the same personal property or its proceeds if the purchase money security interest is perfected at the time the judgment debtor, as a debtor under the security agreement, receives possession of the personal property or within 20 days thereafter.
(e) If a purchase money security interest in inventory has priority over a judgment lien pursuant to subdivision (d) and a conflicting security interest has priority over the purchase money security interest in the same inventory pursuant to Section 9324 of the Commercial Code, the conflicting security interest also has priority over the judgment lien on the inventory subject to the purchase money security interest, notwithstanding that the conflicting security interest would not otherwise have priority over the judgment lien.
(f) A judgment lien that has attached to personal property, and that is also subordinate under subdivision (b) to a security interest in the same personal property, is subordinate to the security interest only to the extent that the security interest secures advances made before the judgment lien attached or within 45 days thereafter or made without knowledge of the judgment lien or pursuant to a commitment entered into without knowledge of the judgment lien. For the purpose of this subdivision, a secured party shall be deemed not to have knowledge of a judgment lien on personal property until (1) the judgment creditor serves a copy of the notice of judgment lien on the secured party personally or by mail and (2) the secured party has knowledge of the judgment lien on personal property, as “knowledge” is defined in Section 1201 of the Commercial Code. If service on the secured party is by mail, it shall be sent to the secured party at the address shown in the financing statement or security agreement.
(g) A perfected agricultural lien on personal property has priority over a judgment lien on the same personal property if the statute creating the agricultural lien so provides.
(h) A security interest in personal property perfected by the filing of a financing statement under the law of a jurisdiction other than this state, or perfected by another method pursuant to the law of a jurisdiction other than this state, has priority over a judgment lien in the same personal property.
(Amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 153, Sec. 2. (AB 1549) Effective January 1, 2010.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018