Legal Environment of Business 8th Edition by Henry Cheeseman

Exercise 2

Buyer in the Ordinary Course of Business Mike Thurmond operated Top Quality Auto Sales, a used car dealership. Top Quality financed its inventory of vehicles by obtaining credit under a financing arrangement with Indianapolis Car Exchange (ICE). ICE filed a financing statement that listed Top Quality's inventory of vehicles as collateral for the financing. Top Quality sold a Ford truck to Bonnie Chrisman, a used car dealer, who paid Top Quality for the truck. Chris-man in turn sold the truck to Randall and Christina Alderson, who paid Chrisman for the truck. When Chrisman filed to retrieve the title to the truck for the Aldersons, it was discovered that Top Quality had not paid ICE for the truck. ICE requested that the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) place a lien in its favor on the title of the truck. When ICE refused to release the lien on the truck, the Aldersons sued ICE to obtain title to the truck. The Aldersons asserted that Chrisman, and then they, were buyers in the ordinary course of business and therefore acquired the truck free of ICE's financing statement. ICE filed a counterclaim to recover the truck from the Aldersons. Are Chris-man and the Aldersons buyers in the ordinary course of business who took the truck free from ICE's security interest in the truck? Indianapolis Car Exchange v. Alderson, 910 N.E.2d 802, Web 2009 Ind.App. Lexis (Court of Appeals of Indiana)