Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 30 > Chapter 9A > Part 1 - General Provisions

• Account debtor: means a person obligated on an account, chattel paper, or general intangible. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Agricultural lien: means an interest, other than a security interest, in farm products:

  (i)that secures payment or performance of an obligation for:

  (A)goods or services furnished in connection with a debtor's farming operation; or

  (B)rent on real property leased by a debtor in connection with its farming operation;

  (ii)that is created by statute in favor of a person that:

  (A)in the ordinary course of its business furnished goods or services to a debtor in connection with a debtor's farming operation; or

  (B)leased real property to a debtor in connection with the debtor's farming operation; and

  (iii)whose effectiveness does not depend on the person's possession of the personal property. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bank: means an organization that is engaged in the business of banking. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Cash proceeds: means proceeds that are money, checks, deposit accounts, or the like. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Certificate of title: means a certificate of title with respect to which a statute provides for the security interest in question to be indicated on the certificate as a condition or result of the security interest's obtaining priority over the rights of a lien creditor with respect to the collateral. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Chattel paper: means a record or records that evidence both a monetary obligation and a security interest in specific goods, a security interest in specific goods and software used in the goods, a security interest in specific goods and license of software used in the goods, a lease of specific goods, or a lease of specific goods and license of software used in the goods. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Collateral: means the property subject to a security interest or agricultural lien. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Commercial tort claim: means a claim arising in tort if:

  (i)the claimant is an organization; or

  (ii)the claimant is an individual and the claim:

  (A)arose in the course of the claimant's business or profession; and

  (B)does not include damages arising out of personal injury to or the death of an individual. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Commodity account: means an account maintained by a commodity intermediary in which a commodity contract is carried for a commodity customer. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Commodity contract: means a commodity futures contract, an option on a commodity futures contract, a commodity option, or another contract if the contract or option is:

  (i)traded on or subject to the rules of a board of trade that has been designated as a contract market for such a contract pursuant to federal commodities laws; or

  (ii)traded on a foreign commodity board of trade, exchange, or market and is carried on the books of a commodity intermediary for a commodity customer. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Commodity customer: means a person for which a commodity intermediary carries a commodity contract on its books. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Commodity intermediary: means a person that:

  (i)is registered as a futures commission merchant under federal commodities law; or

  (ii)in the ordinary course of its business provides clearance or settlement services for a board of trade that has been designated as a contract market pursuant to federal commodities law. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Consignee: means a merchant to which goods are delivered in a consignment. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Consignment: means a transaction, regardless of its form, in which a person delivers goods to a merchant for the purpose of sale and:

  (i)the merchant:

  (A)deals in goods of that kind under a name other than the name of the person making delivery;

  (B)is not an auctioneer; and

  (C)is not generally known by its creditors to be substantially engaged in selling the goods of others;

  (ii)with respect to each delivery, the aggregate value of the goods is $1,000 or more at the time of delivery;

  (iii)the goods are not consumer goods immediately before delivery; and

  (iv)the transaction does not create a security interest that secures an obligation. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Consignor: means a person that delivers goods to a consignee in a consignment. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Consumer goods: means goods that are used or bought for use primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Consumer transaction: means a transaction to the extent that:

  (i)an individual incurs an obligation primarily for personal, family, or household purposes;

  (ii)a security interest secures the obligation; and

  (iii)the collateral is held or acquired primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Consumer-goods transaction: means a transaction to the extent that:

  (i)an individual incurs an obligation primarily for personal, family, or household purposes; and

  (ii)a security interest in consumer goods or in consumer goods and software that is used, licensed, or bought for use primarily for personal, family, or household purposes secures the obligation. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Continuation statement: means an amendment of a financing statement that:

  (i)identifies, by its file number, the initial financing statement to which it relates; and

  (ii)indicates that it is a continuation statement for, or that it is filed to continue the effectiveness of, the identified financing statement. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Debtor: means :

  (i)a person having a property interest, other than a security interest or other lien, in the collateral, whether or not the person is an obligor;

  (ii)a seller of accounts, chattel paper, payment intangibles, or promissory notes; or

  (iii)a consignee. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Deposit account: means a demand, time, savings, passbook, or similar account maintained with a bank. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Document: means a document of title or a receipt of the type described in 30-7-201(2). See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Electronic chattel paper: means chattel paper evidenced by a record or records consisting of information stored in an electronic medium. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Farm products: means goods, other than standing timber, with respect to which the debtor is engaged in a farming operation and that are:

  (i)crops grown, growing, or to be grown, including:

  (A)crops produced on trees, vines, and bushes; and

  (B)aquatic goods produced in aquacultural operations;

  (ii)livestock, born or unborn, including aquatic goods produced in aquacultural operations;

  (iii)supplies used or produced in a farming operation; or

  (iv)products of crops or livestock in their unmanufactured states. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Farming operation: means raising, cultivating, propagating, fattening, grazing, or any other farming, livestock, or aquacultural operation. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• File number: means the number assigned to an initial financing statement pursuant to 30-9A-519(1). See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Filing office: means an office designated in 30-9A-501 as the place to file a financing statement. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Filing-office rule: means a rule adopted pursuant to 30-9A-526. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Financing statement: means a record or records composed of an initial financing statement and any filed record relating to the initial financing statement. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Fixtures: means goods that have become so related to particular real property that an interest in them arises under real property law. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• General intangible: means any personal property, including things in action, other than accounts, chattel paper, commercial tort claims, deposit accounts, documents, goods, instruments, investment property, letter-of-credit rights, letters of credit, money, and oil, gas, or other minerals before extraction. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Goods: means all things that are movable when a security interest attaches. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Governmental unit: means a subdivision, agency, department, county, parish, municipality, or other unit of the government of the United States, a state, or a foreign country. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Health-care-insurance receivable: means an interest in or claim under a policy of insurance that is a right to payment of a monetary obligation for health care goods or services provided. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Instrument: means :

  (A)a negotiable instrument; or

  (B)any other writing that evidences a right to the payment of a monetary obligation, is not itself a security agreement or lease, and is of a type that in the ordinary course of business is transferred by delivery with any necessary indorsement or assignment. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Inventory: means goods, other than farm products, that:

  (i)are leased by a person as lessor;

  (ii)are held by a person for sale or lease or to be furnished under contracts of service;

  (iii)are furnished by a person under a contract of service; or

  (iv)consist of raw materials, work in process, or materials used or consumed in a business. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Investment property: means a security, whether certificated or uncertificated, security entitlement, securities account, commodity contract, or commodity account. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Letter-of-credit right: means a right to payment and performance under a letter of credit, whether or not the beneficiary has demanded or is at the time entitled to demand payment or performance. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Lien creditor: means :

  (i)a creditor that has acquired a lien on the property involved by attachment, levy, or the like;

  (ii)an assignee for benefit of creditors from the time of assignment;

  (iii)a trustee in bankruptcy from the date of the filing of the petition; and

  (iv)a receiver in equity from the time of appointment. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Lineal descendant: Direct descendant of the same ancestors.
• Manufactured home: means a structure, transportable in one or more sections, that in the traveling mode is 8 body feet or more in width or 40 body feet or more in length or that when erected on site is 320 or more square feet and that is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities and includes the plumbing, heating, air-conditioning, and electrical systems contained therein. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Manufactured-home transaction: means a secured transaction:

  (i)that creates a purchase-money security interest in a manufactured home, other than a manufactured home held as inventory; or

  (ii)in which a manufactured home, other than a manufactured home held as inventory, is the primary collateral. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• monetary obligation: means a monetary obligation secured by the goods or owed under a lease of the goods and includes a monetary obligation with respect to software used in the goods. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgage: means a consensual interest in real property, including fixtures, that is created by a mortgage, trust deed, or similar transaction. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• New debtor: means a person that becomes bound as debtor under 30-9A-203(4) by a security agreement previously entered into by another person. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• New value: means :

  (A)money;

  (B)money's worth in property, services, or new credit; or

  (C)release by a transferee of an interest in property previously transferred to the transferee. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Noncash proceeds: means proceeds other than cash proceeds. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Obligor: means a person that, with respect to an obligation secured by a security interest in or an agricultural lien on the collateral:

  (A)owes payment or other performance of the obligation;

  (B)has provided property other than the collateral to secure payment or other performance of the obligation; or

  (C)is otherwise accountable in whole or in part for payment or other performance of the obligation. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Payment intangible: means a general intangible under which the account debtor's principal obligation is a monetary obligation. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Personal property: means money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Promissory note: means an instrument that:

  (i)evidences a promise to pay a monetary obligation;

  (ii)does not evidence an order to pay; and

  (iii)does not contain an acknowledgment by a bank that the bank has received for deposit a sum of money or funds. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Proposal: means a record authenticated by a secured party and including the terms on which the secured party is willing to accept collateral in full or partial satisfaction of the obligation it secures pursuant to 30-9A-620 through 30-9A-622. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Public organic record: means a record that is available to the public for inspection and is:

  (i)a record consisting of the record initially filed with or issued by a state or the United States to form or organize an organization and any record filed with or issued by the state or the United States which amends or restates the initial record;

  (ii)an organic record of a business trust consisting of the record initially filed with a state and any record filed with the state which amends or restates the initial record, if a statute of the state governing business trusts requires that the record be filed with the state; or

  (iii)a record consisting of legislation enacted by the legislature of a state or the congress of the United States which forms or organizes an organization, any record amending the legislation, and any record filed with or issued by the state or the United States which amends or restates the name of the organization. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Public-finance transaction: means a secured transaction in connection with which:

  (i)bonds, debentures, certificates of participation, or similar debt securities are issued;

  (ii)all or a portion of the securities issued have an initial stated maturity of at least 20 years; and

  (iii)the debtor, the obligor, the secured party, the account debtor or other person obligated on collateral, the assignor or assignee of a secured obligation, or the assignor or assignee of a security interest is a state or a governmental unit of a state. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means lands, tenements, hereditaments, and possessory title to public lands. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• record owner: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Registered organization: means an organization formed or organized solely under the law of one state or the United States by the filing of a public organic record with, the issuance of a public organic record by, or the enactment of legislation by the state or the United States. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Secondary obligor: means an obligor to the extent that:

  (i)the obligor's obligation is secondary; or

  (ii)the obligor has a right of recourse with respect to an obligation secured by collateral against the debtor, another obligor, or property of either. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Secured party: means :

  (i)a person in whose favor a security interest is created or provided for under a security agreement, whether or not any obligation to be secured is outstanding;

  (ii)a person that holds an agricultural lien;

  (iii)a consignor;

  (iv)a person to which accounts, chattel paper, payment intangibles, or promissory notes have been sold;

  (v)a trustee, indenture trustee, agent, collateral agent, or other representative in whose favor a security interest or agricultural lien is created or provided for; or

  (vi)a person that holds a security interest arising under 30-2-401, 30-2-505, 30-2-711(3), 30-2A-508(5), 30-4-208, or 30-5-118. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Security agreement: means an agreement that creates or provides for a security interest. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Software: means a computer program, any informational content included in the program, and any supporting information provided in connection with a transaction relating to the computer program or informational content. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Supporting obligation: means a letter-of-credit right or secondary obligation that supports the payment or performance of an account, chattel paper, document, general intangible, instrument, or investment property. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Tangible chattel paper: means chattel paper evidenced by a record or records consisting of information that is inscribed on a tangible medium. See Montana Code 30-9A-102
• Termination statement: means an amendment of a financing statement that:

  (i)identifies, by its file number, the initial financing statement to which it relates; and

  (ii)indicates either that it is a termination statement or that the identified financing statement is no longer effective. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Transmitting utility: means a person primarily engaged in the business of:

  (i)operating a railroad, subway, street railway, or trolley bus;

  (ii)transmitting electric or electronic communications;

  (iii)transmitting goods by pipeline or sewer; or

  (iv)transmitting or producing and transmitting electricity, steam, gas, or water. See Montana Code 30-9A-102

• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Usual: means according to usage. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• Vessel: when used in reference to shipping, includes ships of all kinds, steamboats and steamships, canal boats, and every structure adapted to be navigated from place to place. See Montana Code 1-1-207
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203