Bankers Trust Co. v. J. V. Dowler & Co.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Fuchsberg, J.

We are here called upon to construe and apply subdivision (3) of section 9-504 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which provides that a secured party’s sale or other disposition of collateral upon its debtor’s default must be conducted in a "commercially reasonable” manner.

The case comes to us in the context of a dispute over the propriety of plaintiff Bankers Trust Company’s (Bankers) liquidation of municipal bonds held as collateral for loans made to a securities dealer, defendant J. V. Dowler & Company (Company), of which James V. Dowler, Jr. (Dowler), was…