§11301 Equipment trusts: recordation; evidence of indebtedness

Summary

Certain documents must be filed with the Board to protect a lender’s or owner’s claim in vessels, railroad cars, locomotives, other rolling stock, and their accessories when used in interstate commerce. This rule covers mortgages (except mortgages under chapter 313 of title 46), leases, equipment-trust and conditional-sale papers, bailments, and similar security documents, plus assignments, changes, releases, or satisfactions of those papers. The papers must be written, signed by the parties, and acknowledged or verified under Board rules. Once filed, the paper gives public notice and can be enforced against everyone. Filing here replaces any need to file the same paper under other U.S., state, territorial, or local recording laws, and does not change chapter 313 of title 46. The Board must keep a public record system that gives each filed paper a consecutive number and shows the date and hour it was recorded. The Board must keep an index open to the public that lists names and addresses of the main borrowers, trustees, guarantors, and other parties, and may include other helpful facts. The Board may hire private companies to help run this system. The rule also covers foreign documents that meet two conditions: they are made under another country’s law and cover equipment that shows that country’s reporting marks and ID numbers. Interests filed or recognized under this rule are treated as perfected everywhere, and matters not covered here follow applicable state or foreign law. The Board must also keep a railway equipment register in the same format the Interstate Commerce Commission used on January 1, 1996.