Chapter 19 Notes Flashcards
A signed writing (record) that contains an unconditional promise or order to pay an exact sum on demand or at a specified future time to a specific person or order, or to bearer.
- Can be a substitute for cash or act as a substitute for cash or a credit device, or both.
Negotiable Instrument (Commercial Paper)
In order for a negotiable instrument to operate practically as either a substitute for cash or a credit device, or both, it is essential that the instrument be:
Easily Tranferrable Without Danger of Being Uncontrollable
- Drafts
- Checks
- Promissory Notes
- Certificates of Deposit (CD)
UCC Specified 4 Types of Negotiable Instruments
- Orders to pay
- Promises to pay
2 Classifications of Negotiable Instruments
- Demand Instruments
- Time Instruments
Other Classifications of Negotiable Instruments
Payable on demand. Payable immediately after it is issued andfor a reasonable period fo time thereafter.
Demand Instrument
Payable at a future date.
Time Instruments
Any instrument drawn on a drawee that orders the drawee to pay a certain amount of funds, usually to a third party (the payee), on demand or at a definite future date.
Draft
- Time draft
- Sight draft (Demand draft)
- Check
Types of Drafts
Payable at a definite future time.
Time Draft
Payable on sight, when it is presented to the drawee (usually a bank or financial institution) for payment.
Sight Draft (Demand Draft)
Payable at a stated time after sight (a draft that states it is payable 90 days after sight, for instance).
Drafts can be Both Time and Sight Drafts
The drawee must be obligated to the drawer either by agreement or through a debtor-creditor relationship.
For Drawee to be Obligated to Honor the Order
In negotiable instrument law, a drawee’s signed agreement to pay a draft when it is presented.
- Write’s the word “accepted” with the signature and a date.
Acceptance
A drawee that accepts, or promises to pay, an instrument when it is presented later for payment.
Acceptor
A type of draft commonly used in the sale of goods. The seller is both the drawer and the payee. The buyer to whom credit is extended is the drawee.
Trade Acceptance
A similar instrument that orders the buyer’s bank to pay. Often these are used in international trade.
Banker’s Acceptance
A draft drawn by a drawer ordering the drawee bank or financial institution to pay a certain amount of funds to the payee on demand.
- Demand instruments
Check
The writer of the check.
Drawer
The bank on which the check is drawn.
Drawee
The peron to whom the check is payable.
Payee
In this kind of check, the bank is both the drawer and the drawee.
Cashier’s Check
A written promise made by one person to pay a fixed amount of funds to another person on demand or on a specified date.
- Both a time and demand instrument
- Can be made to a specific payee or be payable to bearer.
Promissory Note (Note)
Often carries the name of the transaction involved.
- Collateral note
- Installment note
Promissory Notes- Names
A note secured by personal property.
Collateral Note
Property pledged as security for the satisfaction of a debt.
Collateral
A note payable in installments.
Installment Note
A note issued by a bank in which the bank acknowledges the receipt of funds from a party and promises to repay that amount, with interest, to the party on a certain date.
- Bank is the maker
- Depositor is the payee
- Time deposits
Certificate of Deposit (CD)
Because CDs are time deposits, the _______ typically is not allowed to withdraw the funds before the date of maturity (except in limited circumstances, such as disability or death).
Purchaser-Payee
He or she can sell (negotiate) the CD to a third party.
Accessing Funds Prior to Maturity Date
(For amounts up to 100,000 dollars).
Often sold by:
- Savings and loan associations
- Savings banks
- Commercial banks
- Credit unions
Certificates of Deposits in Small Denominations
- Be in writing
- Be signed by the maker or the drawer
- Be an unconditional promise or order to pay
- State a fixed amount of money
- Be payable on demand or at a definite time
- Be payable to order or to bearer, unless the instrument is a check.
Requirements for Negotiability- Instuments Must Meet These Requirements to be Negotiable
Negotiable instruments must be in ____ ____ (but may be evidenced by an electronic record).
- Must possess the quality of certainty that only formal, written expression can give.
Written Form
- The writing must be on a material that lends itself to permanance.
- The writing must have portability. (UCC does not explicitly state this requirement, but if an instrument is not moveable, it obviously cannot easily be transferred in the ordinary course of business).
The Writing Must Have These Qualities
(UCC gives considerable leeway)
For an instrument to be negotiable, it must contain the signatures of:
- The maker, if it is a note or a certificate of deposit, or
- The drawer, if it is a draft or check.
- Makers and drawers can have an agent sign for them.
Signatures
- Nearly an symbol executed or adopted by a person with the intent to authenticate a written or electronic document.
- Can be made by any device (rubber stamp, thumb print).
- Can consist of any name (trade name, word, mark, or symbol)
What UCC Constitutes a Signature
Admissible to identify the signer.
Parole Evidence
This is the usual place of a signature, but the location of a signature on a document is unimportant.
Lower Right Hand Corner
Written on the body of the instrument is sufficient to act as a signature.
Handwritten Statement
- Terms of the Promise or order must be included in the writing on the face of the instrument
- These terms must be unconditional
Express Order or Promise to Pay
- UCC requires this to be affirmative (express)
- An acknowledgement of the debt (I.O.U.) might logically imply a promise, but it is not sufficient under the UCC.
Promise
Associated with three-party instruments, such as checks, drafts, and trade acceptances.
- Directs a third party to may the instrument as drawn.
- May be addressed to one party or to more than one party, either jointly.
Order
Signifies an order if it is accompanied by curteous words (please, kindly). Words like “I wish” would not constitute an order.
“Pay”
- An express condition to payment
- That the promise or order is subject to or governed by another writing or record.
- That the rights or obligations with respect to the promise or order are stated in another writing or record.
A Promise or Order is Conditional (not negotiable) if it States These Things.
Only these orders or promises dan be negotiable.
Unconditional
- Reference to another writing
- Statements in the instruments that payment can be made only out of a particular fund or source
Things that do not Make a Promise or Order Conditional
This requirement ensures that the value of an instrument can be determined with clarity and certainty.
Fixed Amount of Money
An amount that is acertainable from the face of an instrument
- Payable in money
Fixed Amount
May be determined from information that is not contained in the instrument itself but described by it, such as a formula or a source.
- Legal rate of interest
- Variable rate of interest
Rate of Interest
A rate of interest fixed by statute. This is negotiable ineterest.
Legal Rate of Interest
Mortgage notes tied to this are negotiable. It is a rate that fluctuates as a result of market conditions.
Variable Rate of Interest
A medium of exchange authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government as part of its currency.
- Gold is not a medium of exchange (nonnegotiable)
- Foreign currency is negotiable- paid in the foreign curency of the equavalent amount of US dollars.
Money
- Necessary to know when the maker, drawee, or acceptor is required to pay
- Necessary to know when obligations of secondary parties (indorsers) will arise.
- Necessary to know when an instrument is due in order to calculate when the statute or limitations may apply.
- With an interest bearing instrument, it is necessary to know the exact interval during which interest will accrue to determine the instrument’s present value.
Payable on Demand or at a Definite Time
- Include the words “payable on sight” or “payable upon presentment”
- Very nature of the instrument may indicate this (i.e. checks)
- If no time for payment is specified and the person responsible for payment must pay on the instrument’s presentment, the instrument is this.
Payable on Demand
The act of presenting an instrument to the party liable on the instrument in order to collect payment. Also occurs when a person presents an instrument to a drawee for a required acceptance.
- Can be made by any commercially reasonable means: oral, written, electronic communication
Presentment
- That it is payable on a specified date
- That it is payable within a definite period of time after being presented for payment.
- That is payable on a date or time readily ascertainable at the time the promise or order is issued.
Payable at a Definite Time: An Instrument is Payable at a Definite Time if it States any of These Things:
- Payable by the maker or drawer on or before a stated date, it i clearly payable at a definite time
- The maker or drawer has the option of paying before the stated maturity date, but the payee can still rely on payment being made by the maturity date.
- If undated and made payable “one month after date” is clearly nonnegotiable. There is no way to determine the maturity date.
- If uncertain, not payable at a definite time.
Payable at a Definite Time
A clause that allows a payee or other holder of a time instrument to demand payment of the entire amount due, with interest, if a certain event occurs, such a default in the payment of an installment when due.
- Negotiable because exact value of the instrument can be ascertained.
- Payable on a specified date if the event allowing acceleration does not occur
- Specified date is the outside limit used to determine the value and negotiability of the instrument.
Acceleration Clause
Any person in possession of an instrument drawn, issued, or indorsed to him or her, to his or her order, to bearer, or in blank.
Holder
A clause in a time instrument that allows the instrument’s date of maturity to be extended into the future.
Extension Clause
If the right to extend the time of payment is given to these parties, the interval of the extension must be specified to keep the instrument negotiable.
Maker or Drawer- Extension Clause
If this person can extend the time of payment, the extended maturity date need not be specified for the instrument to be negotiable.
Holder- Extension Clause
Because one of the functions of a negotiable instrument is to serve as a subsititute for cash, freedom of transfer is essential.
- It must be this at the time it is issued or first comes into the possession of the holder.
- An instrument is not negotiable until it meets this requirement.
Payable to Order or to Bearer
A negotiable instrument that is payable “to the order of an identified person” or “to an identified person or order.”
- Identified person may in turn transfer the paper to whomever he or she wishes.
- Must be identified with certainty because the transfer of the instrument requires the indorsement (signature) of the payee.
Order Instrument
To whom the instrument is initially payable as determined by the intent of the maker or drawer.
Identified Person
Any instrument that is not payable to a specific person, including instruments payable to the bearer or to “cash.”
- Maker or drawer agrees to pay anyone who presents the instrument for payment.
Bearer Instrument
A person in possession of an instrument payable to bearer or indorsed in blank.
Bearer
- Payable to the order or bearer
- Payable to Simon Reed or bearer
- Payable to bearer
- Pay cash
- Pay to the order of cash
Any Instruments Containing These Terms is a Bearer Instrument