Also known as: lien creditors
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A creditor who has acquired a lien on specific property by attachment, levy, or similar judicial process.
Lone Peak Energy sold equipment to Laura Lewis under a purchase-money arrangement that created an attached security interest. Lone Peak filed its financing statement fifteen days after Laura received the equipment. During the interval before filing, Lucas Lee obtained a judgment against Laura and levied on the equipment. Because the filing occurred within the twenty-day window, Lone Peak's interest takes priority over Lucas's lien.
Lighthouse Shipping financed the purchase of a vessel subject to a federal statute that governs perfection of security interests in such property. The federal rules preempt the ordinary filing requirement and supply the method for obtaining priority over lien creditors. When a judgment creditor later attempts to levy on the vessel, the federal statute determines whether the security interest prevails.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A lien creditor has acquired a specific lien on particular property through attachment, levy, or the like, while a general unsecured creditor holds only a personal claim without any property interest. The distinction matters because Article 9 gives a perfected security interest priority over a lien creditor but leaves an unperfected security interest subordinate to one.
If the secured party files a financing statement before or within twenty days after the debtor receives delivery of the collateral, the purchase-money security interest takes priority over a lien creditor whose rights arose in the gap period between attachment and filing.
Yes. The trustee is treated as a hypothetical lien creditor as of the petition date and can avoid an unperfected security interest under the strong-arm powers by stepping into the shoes of a creditor who obtained a judicial lien at that moment.
A federal statute that sets its own requirements for obtaining priority over lien creditors preempts the ordinary Article 9 filing rules, so perfection and priority are governed by the federal scheme rather than by a UCC financing statement.