§ 680.340.Secured Party

Judgment creditors rarely have a debtor's assets all to themselves. Banks, equipment lenders, and other secured creditors often hold prior claims against the same property, and this section names that competing interest holder: the secured party, defined the same way the Commercial Code defines it for secured transactions generally.

Whether a secured party's claim beats a judgment creditor's lien usually comes down to timing and perfection under the Commercial Code's priority rules, not the Enforcement of Judgments Law itself. But knowing who counts as a secured party is the first step in figuring out whether a piece of property a judgment creditor wants to levy on is already encumbered, and by how much, before deciding whether levying is worth the cost.