Blank Rome senior counsel Stephen T. Whelan co-authored the survey article on “Leases” for the Fall 2024 edition of The Business Lawyer.
Article Excerpt:
This survey covers several 2023 cases involving disputes among parties to equipment leases or other personal property financings or involving third parties claiming to have related rights or interests. The courts in these cases considered many of the fundamental issues often raised by parties and others when litigating commercial enforcement, bankruptcy protections, and other claimed rights, including the associated rights, interests, and liability considerations, relating to these leases and financings. The issues covered in cases summarized in this survey include whether a transaction documented as a lease creates a true “lease” or a security interest under the Uniform Commercial Code (the “U.C.C.”), vicarious liability of a lessor, the enforceability and shortcomings of forum selection clauses and the rights of assignees.
Please also note that the 2022 U.C.C. Amendments are likely to impact leases and financings involving goods and, in some cases, the non-goods aspects of those transactions. Perhaps the most noteworthy of these lease-related amendments is the expanded scope of U.C.C. Article 2A, which now includes a “bundled” transaction involving an integrated lease of goods together with related services, licenses or sales of goods, if constituting a “hybrid lease” as now defined in U.C.C. Article 2A. These and the other amendments to U.C.C. Article 2A, and certain related amendments to the scope of U.C.C. Article 2, which now includes “hybrid transactions,” and the amended definition of “chattel paper” under U.C.C. Article 9, are all discussed in detail in the introduction to last year’s U.C.C. Survey.
To read the full article, please click here.
“Leases,” by Stephen T. Whelan, Dominic A. Liberatore, and Edward K. Gross* was published in the Fall 2024 edition of The Business Lawyer, a publication of the American Bar Association, Business Law Section.
* Dominic A. Liberatore serves as deputy general counsel for De Lage Landen Financial Services, Inc. Edward K. Gross practices law with Vedder Price P.C.
