§ 697.740.Transfer Or Encumbrance of Personal Property Subject to Lien

Property subject to an execution lien that hasn't been taken into a levying officer's custody — because, for instance, it was levied on while still in the debtor's possession through some other method — follows a broader set of exceptions than property already in custody. The general rule is the same continuing-lien principle used throughout this chapter, but subdivisions (a) through (k) list eleven categories of recipients who take the property free of the lien anyway.

These categories track the protections Commercial Code Article 9 gives against conflicting security interests: a person who pays reasonably equivalent value without knowledge of the lien, buyers and lessees in the ordinary course of business, holders in due course of negotiable instruments, holders to whom negotiable documents of title were duly negotiated, protected purchasers of securities, good-faith purchasers of chattel paper or instruments who take possession and give value, purchase-money security interest holders, collecting banks, people who acquire interests in letters of credit or money, and people who acquire interests governed by another jurisdiction's certificate-of-title statute.

Because § 697.750 and § 697.920 both incorporate this list by reference, understanding it matters well beyond Article 4 itself — it's the standard protection list that other liens created through the enforcement process rely on too.