## Facts

- Bennie A. Miller and Debbie A. Miller (the debtors) lived in Illinois and did business with State Bank of Arthur (the creditor).
- The Millers bought a lawn-equipment business and, from 1999 to 2012, entered into a series of credit transactions with State Bank.
- Over that period, the Millers executed five promissory notes, five commercial security agreements, a mortgage, and a UCC-1 financing statement in connection with the loans.
- Mr. Miller signed the loan documents and the signature card for the Millers’ bank account using the name “Bennie A. Miller.”
- “Bennie A. Miller” was also the name shown on Mr. Miller’s driver’s license, Social Security card, federal income tax returns, the deed to the Millers’ home, and the bill of sale for the lawn-equipment business.
- State Bank filed a financing statement listing the debtor name as “Bennie A. Miller.”
- The Millers later filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case and brought a proceeding seeking to avoid State Bank’s security interest as unperfected.
- The Millers argued the financing statement was defective because it did not use “Ben Miller,” the name on Mr. Miller’s birth certificate.
- The bankruptcy court agreed with the Millers, reasoning that Illinois required an individual debtor’s “legal name” on a financing statement, that the “legal name” is the birth-certificate name, and that a filing that could not be found by searching “Ben Miller” was seriously misleading.
- Evidence showed a UCC search using “Bennie A. Miller” returned five of six financing statements, while a search using “Ben Miller” returned none; State Bank appealed the bankruptcy court’s ruling.

## Issues

1. Under Illinois’s version of U.C.C. Article 9, must a financing statement for an individual debtor use the debtor’s birth-certificate name as the debtor’s “legal name” to be effective?
2. Was State Bank’s financing statement “seriously misleading” (and therefore ineffective to perfect) because it used “Bennie A. Miller” instead of “Ben Miller,” given the filing office’s search results?

## Decision

- The district court reversed the bankruptcy court.
- The court held Illinois Article 9 requires a financing statement to provide “the name of the debtor,” not necessarily the debtor’s birth-certificate name.
- The court rejected the bankruptcy court’s view that Illinois law imposed a rigid “legal name equals birth-certificate name” rule for individuals.
- Based on Mr. Miller’s consistent use of “Bennie A. Miller” on bank records and widely used identification and commercial documents, the court concluded that listing him as “Bennie A. Miller” satisfied the Article 9 name requirement.
- The court concluded the financing statement was not ineffective as “seriously misleading” on the theory that it failed to use “Ben Miller,” and it remanded for further proceedings consistent with its ruling.

## Legal Principles

- Under Illinois U.C.C. § 9-503(a), a financing statement is sufficient only if it provides the debtor’s name; for individuals, the statute does not expressly require a birth-certificate name.
- Article 9’s filing system is designed to give notice through the ability to locate filings by searching the debtor’s name using the filing office’s standard search logic; the “seriously misleading” inquiry under § 9-506 centers on whether the name used defeats that search-and-notice method.
- For an individual who consistently holds himself out in commercial and identification records under a particular name, use of that name on a financing statement can satisfy § 9-503 even if it differs from the birth certificate.
- A court may consider the debtor’s consistent real-world usage of a name (including on government-issued ID and recurring transactional documents) when deciding whether the financing statement “provides the name of the debtor” and whether any deviation is materially misleading.
- A bankruptcy court should not add extra-statutory naming requirements that are not stated in Article 9’s text, particularly where the evidence shows the filed name is the one commonly used in the debtor’s financial affairs.

## Conclusion

In *In re Miller*, the Central District of Illinois reversed a bankruptcy court ruling that had treated a financing statement as unperfected because it used “Bennie A. Miller” rather than “Ben Miller,” the name on the debtor’s birth certificate. The district court held Illinois Article 9 calls for the debtor’s name, not an automatic birth-certificate standard, and it found the bank’s filing was not seriously misleading where Mr. Miller consistently used “Bennie A. Miller” in business and identification records and searches under that name disclosed the filings.


In re Miller, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116275, 78 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d 496 (2012)