I was sitting in a living room with an elderly woman who was showing me a security agreement which she said gave her a security interest in some household goods of a person with whom she had conducted some business. She was planning to try to get the goods.

I looked at the agreement and immediately detected some problems. Some of the language seemed ambiguous, and I told her she needed to describe the goods with "particularity." For instance I explained that it wasn't good enough to simply put down "television." Using a television in the room, I pointed to it and said it needed to be described as an "eighteen inch Zenith television."

I asked her how many times in the past she had actually foreclosed on household goods with a security agreement. She wavered at first, but finally admitted she never had, although she apparently had had many security agreements.

I also told her it was necessary to file the agreement in the court house. But then I thought some more about it and realized what I had said was incorrect, that it was only necessary to file it to protect the security interest against subsequent security interests.

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