Court Negates UCC Article 9 Consignment Law Improvements

The law of consignment sales of goods, under which merchandise is delivered by a seller (a ''consignor") to another person (a "consignee") to hold for sale to a third party, has long been a source of confusion and uncertainty for both consignors (seeking to protect their rights to their consigned goods) and creditors of the consignee (seeking to satisfy their claims against the consignee and its assets). Prior to the enactment in 2001 of revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, the treatment of consignment sales had straddled both Article 2 of the UCC, which covers the sale of goods, and Article 9 of the UCC, which covers the creation and perfection of a security interest in goods. The drafters of revised Article 9 sought to eliminate this confusion by removing all regulation of consignment sales from UCC Article 2, and lodging all regulation of consignments under the UCC (to the extent not covered by common law) squarely within UCC Article 9. However, the recent Bankruptcy Court decision in the case of In re Morgansen's Ltd., 302 B.R.784(Bankr.E.D.N.Y., October 14,2003)would, if sustained on appeal, negate many of the improvements introduced by revised Article 9 and wreak havoc on the treatment of consignment sales of consumer goods and other "true" consignments not expressly covered by revised Article 9.