Re the UCC1 Do I use use 1a or 1b for the Creditor

Q: Hi Les, I’m plowing through your material trying to come up with the best way to fill out these UCC forms for my State of NY and based on the NYS website definitions of sections 1a and 1b below, it seems to me that there is 1a is more appropriate for the Strawman all caps name than 1b but you seem to be leaning towards putting the Strawman’s name in 1b is that still the case for NY State based on their definitions.

R: This is good – means you are thinking and not blindly copying the sample UCC1 sample documents in the back office for your State.

Question for you: Re 1a who is the owner of the straw man? If we were to ask that of your other COMPANY XYZ the answer would be your LEGAL NAME.  Who then is the OWNER of your LEGAL NAME? There is no comparable to your LEGAL NAME in the UCC’s narrow defination of OWNER (STRAW MAN) as they do not make the distinction nor recognize that the human being is seperate from the STRAWMAN name.  [We may surmise that the STATE is the legal owner of the STRAW MAN since they created it and that we are not the LEGAL ENTITY but the system does not recognize that as being an appropiate response within the UCC registry.]

For example. lets say you put your name in 1a – the section reserved for Organizations as apposed to that reserved for PERSONS. Then when someone types your name in the UCC search are they going to search the database under Organization or Person?

If they subsequently cannot find any prior registration under the STRAW MAN name then you have not perfected your claim because it is not searchable in the records.  If you can’t find it it means it does not exist. By over thinking this you have effectively sabatoged yourself. To fit a round peg in a square hole simply does not work – you have to work the system the way the system works. If you think of the system as a dumb mechanical machine it will serve you better. In nature you do not paddle a canoe upstream. Dealing with artificial man made systems, universal rules still apply – which is the beauty of it – you have to go with the flow in order to get where you want to go. Trying to make the system do something its not designed to do is only an exercise in futility.

If you look at the sample documents you will see how I used to do it under 1a  “FIRST SECOND LASTNAME organization/ tradename/ trade mark” . Now if then subsequently did a search for the name “FIRST SECOND LAST” you would never find it unless it was exactly typed in as it is in quotes. So by defination the claim is not perfected as it is not findable.

In STATE X an organization is clearly defined as more than one party – you can probably think of the STRAW MAN as more than one since you have multiple STRAW MEN acting in various capacities ie the BANK ACCOUNT HOLDER, THE DRIVER, etc but in the ‘normal’ sense there is only one STRAWMAN so by defination the STRAW MAN is not an organization. I don’t think STATE NY’s definitation is totally out of sync with STATE X’s.