24.51.030 What Constitutes Filing; Duration of Filing; Effect of Lapsed Filing; Duties of Filing Officer; Filing Fee; Centralized Computer System

(a) Presentation for filing of a financing statement and tender of the filing fee or acceptance of the statement by the filing officer constitutes filing under this article.

(b) Except as provided in Subsection (f) a filed financing statement is effective for a period of five years from the date of filing and thereafter for a period of sixty (60) days. A filed financing statement which states that the obligation secured is payable on demand is effective for five (5) years from the date of filing and thereafter for a period of sixty (60) days. The effectiveness of a filed financing statement lapses on the expiration of the five-year and sixty-day period unless a continuation statement is filed prior to the lapse. If a security interest perfected by filing exists at the time insolvency proceedings are commenced by or against the debtor, the security interest remains perfected until termination of the insolvency proceedings and thereafter for a period of sixty (60) days or until expiration of the five-year and sixty-day period, whichever occurs later. Upon such lapse the security interest becomes unperfected, unless it is perfected without filing. If the security interest becomes unperfected upon lapse, it is deemed to have been unperfected as against a person who became a purchaser or lien creditor before lapse.

(c) A continuation statement may be filed by the secured party within six (6) months before and sixty (60) days after the expiration of the five-year period specified in Subsection (b). Any such continuation statement must be signed by the secured party, identify the original statement by file number and by the debtor's social security number or internal revenue service taxpayer identification number, and state that the original statement is still effective. A continuation statement signed by a person other than the secured party of record must be accompanied by a separate written statement of assignment signed by the secured party of record and complying with Section 24.51.050(b), including payment of the required fee. Upon timely filing of the continuation statement, the effectiveness of the original statement is continued for five (5) years after the last date to which the filing was effective whereupon it lapses in the same manner as provided in Subsection (b) unless another continuation statement is filed prior to such lapse. Succeeding continuation statements may be filed in the same manner to continue the effectiveness of the original statement. Unless a statute on disposition of public records provides otherwise, the filing officer may remove a lapsed statement from the files and destroy it immediately if he or she has retained a microfilm or other photographic record, or in other cases after one year after the lapse. The filing officer shall so arrange matters by physical annexation of financing statements to continuation statements or other related filings, or by other means, that if he or she physically destroys the financing statements of a period more than five (5) years past, those which have been continued by a continuation statement, or which are still effective under Subsection (f) shall be retained.

(d) Except as provided in Subsection (g) a filing officer shall mark each statement with a file number and with the date and hour of filing and shall hold the statement or a microfilm or other photographic copy thereof for public inspection. In addition, the filing officer shall index the statements according to the name of the debtor and shall note in the index the file number and the address of the debtor given in the statement.

(e) Except as provided in Subsection (h), the uniform fee for filing and indexing and for stamping a copy furnished by the secured party to show the date and place of filing for an original financing statement or for a continuation statement shall be three dollars ($3) if the statement is in the standard form prescribed by the Secretary of the Tribe and otherwise shall be seven dollars ($7), plus in each case, if the financing statement is subject to Subsection (e) of Section 24.51.020, two dollars ($2). The uniform fee for each name more than one required to be indexed shall be two dollars ($2). The secured party may at his or her option show a trade name for any person and an extra uniform indexing fee of two dollars ($2) shall be paid with respect thereto.

(f) If the debtor is a transmitting utility (Section 24.51.010(e) and a filed financing statement so states, it is effective until a termination statement is filed. A real estate mortgage which is effective as a fixture filing under Subsection (f) of Section 24.4502(6) remains effective as a fixture filing until the mortgage is released or satisfied of record or its effectiveness otherwise terminates as to the real estate.

(g) When a financing statement covers timber to be cut or covers minerals or the like (including oil and gas) or accounts subject to Section 24.42.030(e), or is filed as a fixture filing, it shall be filed for record and the filing officer shall index it under the names of the debtor and any owner of record shown on the financing statement in the same fashion as if they were the mortgagors in a mortgage of the real estate described, and to the extent that the law of the Tribe provides for indexing of mortgages under the name of the mortgagee, under the name of the secured party as if he or she were the mortgagee there under, or where indexing is by description in the same fashion as if the financing statement were a mortgage of the real estate described.

(h) When a filed financing or continuation statement covers farm products or accounts, or livestock, or general intangibles arising from or relating to the sale of farm products by a farmer, or crops growing or to be grown, or equipment used in farming operations, the fee for filing must be established by the Secretary of the Tribe. The Secretary of the Tribe shall deposit all fees he or she collects in the general fund of the Tribe.

(i) Within one working day of receipt of a financing or continuation statement described in Subsection (h), the Secretary of the Tribe shall record the information contained in the statement on a centralized computer system that the Secretary shall establish. The computer system shall allow access to financing statement information by any type of communications which conform to standards used by the central computer. The system shall have safeguards to allow only access to Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Commercial Code data and to prevent alteration, addition, or deletion of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Commercial Code data. The computer shall be accessible whenever the computer system is available. A printout of information from the system is prima facie evidence of the existence or nonexistence of the filing of a financing statement.