409.108 Sufficiency of description.

(1) Sufficiency of description. Except as otherwise provided in subs. (3) to (5), a description of personal or real property is sufficient, whether or not it is specific, if it reasonably identifies what is described.

(2) Examples of reasonable identification. Except as otherwise provided in sub. (4), a description of collateral reasonably identifies the collateral if it identifies the collateral by:

(a) Specific listing;

(b) Category;

(c) Except as otherwise provided in sub. (5), a type of collateral defined in chs. 401 to 411;

(d) Quantity;

(e) Computational or allocational formula or procedure; or

(f) Except as otherwise provided in sub. (3), any other method, if the identity of the collateral is objectively determinable.

(3) Supergeneric description not sufficient. A description of collateral as “all the debtor's assets" or “all the debtor's personal property" or using words of similar import does not reasonably identify the collateral.

(4) Investment property. Except as otherwise provided in sub. (5), a description of a security entitlement, securities account, or commodity account is sufficient if it describes:

(a) The collateral by those terms or as investment property; or

(b) The underlying financial asset or commodity contract.

(5) When description by type insufficient. A description only by type of collateral defined in chs. 401 to 411 is an insufficient description of:

(a) A commercial tort claim; or

(b) In a consumer transaction, consumer goods, a security entitlement, a securities account, or a commodity account.

History: 2001 a. 10.

A wrong statement of section, township, range, and county where crops were grown was not minor, and, without directing further inquiry, was insufficient. Whether a party is misled by the description is not part of the inquiry under s. 409.110 or 409.402. Smith & Spindahl Enterprises, Inc. v. Lee, 206 Wis. 2d 663, 557 N.W.2d 865 (Ct. App. 1996), 96-0882.

NOTE: The above annotated materials cite to the pre-2001 Wis. Act 10 version of ch. 409.