Also known as: governmental units · government unit
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A subdivision, agency, department, county, parish, municipality, or other unit of the government of the United States, a State, or a foreign country. The term includes an organization having a separate corporate existence if the organization is eligible to issue debt on which interest is exempt from income taxation under the laws of the United States.
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The State Lottery Commission, a governmental unit, sells tickets that create rights to payment of winnings. When a secured party takes a security interest in those rights, the definition of account expressly includes winnings in a game operated by a governmental unit of a State. The classification determines how the secured party must perfect its interest in the monetary obligation.
The Department of Motor Vehicles, a governmental unit, maintains an electronic record of vehicle ownership in place of paper certificates. A lender seeks to perfect a security interest in a vehicle by noting its lien on that record. The statute treats the governmental unit's alternative record as equivalent to a certificate of title for priority purposes.
No. Article 9 does not apply to a security interest created by a state or governmental unit of a state if another statute of that state expressly governs creation, perfection, priority, or enforcement of the interest.
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