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Beating True Lease Challenges: A Lessor's Guide to Structuring and Defending True Leases

By David G. Mayer
August 05, 2004

Lessees increasingly challenge leases in bankruptcy proceedings or disputes with lessors. They assert and litigate the issue of whether a lease constitutes a disguised security arrangement instead of a true lease. This issue arises with respect to leases of equipment as well as software. The consequence of losing true lease status under state law can dramatically affect a lessor's legal rights and remedies and impair a lessor's economics. Despite this increased uncertainty, lessors can effectively structure and defend their lease transactions as true leases when armed with working knowledge of current judicial trends and applicable rules under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

Courts have exhaustively analyzed the true lease issues over the past 20 years and have created a confusing and complex array of inconsistent decisions. The analysis of true lease challenges often starts with Section 1-201(37) of the UCC. In general, Section 1-201(37) establishes a “per se” or “bright-line” test of whether a transaction should be treated as a true lease or disguised security agreement. Current case law also includes an additional “economic realities” test that evaluates the facts of each transaction to determine objectively whether the transaction is a lease or disguised security interest.

The Golden Thread: Residual Value or Reversionary Interests

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