US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

§ 1307.04. (UCC 7-104) Negotiable and non-negotiable warehouse receipt, bill of lading, or other document of title.
 

(A)  A warehouse receipt, bill of lading, or other document of title is negotiable: 

(1) if by its terms the goods are to be delivered to bearer or to the order of a named person; or 

(2) where recognized in overseas trade, if it runs to a named person or assigns. 

(B)  Any other document is non-negotiable. A bill of lading in which it is stated that the goods are consigned to a named person is not made negotiable by a provision that the goods are to be delivered only against a written order signed by the same or another named person. 
 

HISTORY: 129 v S 5. Eff 7-1-62.
 

Not analogous to former RC § 1307.04 (RS § 3177w; 95 v 195; GC § 8291; Bureau of Code Revision, 10-1-53), repealed 129 v S 5, § 2, eff 7-1-62; but see former RC §§ 1323.06, 4965.05.

 

Official Comment

Consolidated and rewritten. 

This Article [Chapter] deals with a class of commercial paper representing commodities in storage or transportation. This "commodity paper" is to be distinguished from what might be called "money paper" dealt with in the Article [Chapter] of this Act on Commercial Paper (Article [Chapter] 3) and "investment paper" dealt with in the Article [Chapter] of this Act on Investment Securities (Article [Chapter] 8). The class of "commodity paper" is designated "document of title" following the terminology of the Uniform Sales Act, Section 76. Section 1-201. The distinction between negotiable and nonnegotiable documents in this section makes the most important subclassification employed in the Article [Chapter], in that the holder of negotiable documents may acquire more rights than his transferor had (See Section 7-502). 

A document of title is negotiable only if it satisfies this section. "Deliverable on proper indorsement and surrender of this receipt" will not render a document negotiable. Bailees often include such provisions as a means of insuring return of nonnegotiable receipts for record purposes. Such language may be regarded as insistence by the bailee upon a particular kind of receipt in connection with delivery of the goods. Subsections (1)(a) and (2) make it clear that a document is not negotiable which provides for delivery to order or bearer only if written instructions to that effect are given by a named person.