## Facts

- Evonne M. Giaimo purchased a 2008 Toyota RAV4 in February 2008 using an interest-free loan from her grandmother, Veronica O’Keefe.
- Giaimo and O’Keefe did not execute formal loan or security documents.
- Giaimo signed an Ohio application for certificate of title identifying O’Keefe as lienholder, including O’Keefe’s name and address.
- The issued Ohio certificate of title listed O’Keefe as the lienholder.
- Giaimo filed a voluntary Chapter 7 petition on June 11, 2009; the vehicle became property of the bankruptcy estate.
- The Chapter 7 trustee filed an adversary complaint seeking to avoid the asserted vehicle lien on the ground that no enforceable security interest existed.
- The bankruptcy court granted summary judgment to the trustee, treating the lien as avoidable.
- After O’Keefe’s death, Maureen Perfect, executor of O’Keefe’s estate, was substituted and appealed to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Sixth Circuit.

## Issues

1. Whether, under Ohio law, a debtor-signed application for a motor vehicle certificate of title and the resulting certificate of title, both naming a lienholder, are sufficient to create an enforceable security interest in the vehicle absent a separate written security agreement.
2. If such documents are sufficient, whether the lien is properly perfected against the bankruptcy estate so that the trustee cannot avoid it.

## Decision

- The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel reversed the summary judgment entered for the trustee.
- The panel held that the application for title and the certificate of title identifying O’Keefe as lienholder were sufficient under Ohio law to create and perfect a security interest in the vehicle.
- The matter was remanded for further proceedings consistent with recognition of the lien as valid and perfected.

## Legal Principles

- For Ohio motor vehicles covered by the certificate-of-title system, Ohio Rev. Code § 4505.13 provides the operative method for recording vehicle security interests and displaces alternative filing methods otherwise used under Article 9.
- A debtor’s signed title application that identifies a lienholder, together with a certificate of title noting that lienholder, can satisfy the writing and intent-to-grant-lien functions typically served by a separate security agreement for purposes of attachment and enforceability.
- Proper lien notation on an Ohio certificate of title perfects the security interest against third parties, including a Chapter 7 trustee exercising avoidance powers.

## Conclusion

The appellate panel held that Ohio’s certificate-of-title documents—when signed by the debtor and reflecting the lienholder on both the application and the issued title—can establish and perfect a vehicle security interest without a separate security agreement, defeating the trustee’s attempt to avoid the lien.


Drown v. Perfect (In re Giaimo), 440 B.R. 761 (B.A.P. 6th Cir. 2010)