Fishback Nursery, Inc. v. PNC Bank, Nat'l Ass'n

STUART KYLE DUNCAN, Circuit Judge:

We confront a lien contest among three creditors of a bankrupt commercial farm. Two of the creditors-Fishback and Surface-are nurseries that sold the farm over a million dollars' worth of trees and shrubs in Michigan, Tennessee, and Oregon, and so claim agricultural liens in the farm's assets. The third creditor is a bank, PNC, that claims debtor-in-possession liens based on financing it provided to keep the farm afloat during bankruptcy. The central issue is whether the bank's lien outranks the nurseries' liens.

To settle that dispute, the district court had…