True Lease or Secured Transaction?

In re Roberts, 620 B.R. 336 (Bankr. N.M. 2020) involves a question that arises frequently in the UCC world, i.e., was a particular commercial financing arrangement a true lease or a secured transaction that fell within the umbrage of Article 9 of the New Mexico Uniform Commercial Code?

The resolution of that question was important because the lessees were in bankruptcy and the purported lessor was attempting to repossess the equipment/collateral. Lessor couldn’t do so unl…