2018 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 55 - Uniform Commercial Code
Article 4 - Bank Deposits and Collections
Section 55-4-404 - Bank not obliged to pay check more than six months old.

A bank is under no obligation to a customer having a checking account to pay a check, other than a certified check, which is presented more than six months after its date, but it may charge its customer's account for a payment made thereafter in good faith.

History: 1953 Comp., § 50A-4-404, enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 96, § 4-404; 1992, ch. 114, § 189.

OFFICIAL COMMENTS

UCC Official Comments by ALI & the NCCUSL. Reproduced with permission of the PEB for the UCC. All rights reserved.

This section incorporates a type of statute that had been adopted in 26 jurisdictions before the Code. The time limit is set at six months because banking and commercial practice regards a check outstanding for longer than that period as stale, and a bank will normally not pay such a check without consulting the depositor. It is therefore not required to do so, but is given the option to pay because it may be in a position to know, as in the case of dividend checks, that the drawer wants payment made.

Certified checks are excluded from the section because thay are the primary obligation of the certifying bank (Sections 3-409 and 3-413) [55-3-409 and 55-3-413 NMSA 1978, respectively]. The obligation runs directly to the holder of the check. The customer's account was presumably charged when the check was certified.

The 1992 amendment, effective July 1, 1992, substituted "obliged" for "obligated" in the section catchline.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 10 Am. Jur. 2d Banks § 552.

Bank's liability for paying postdated checks, 31 A.L.R.4th 329.

9 C.J.S. Banks and Banking §§ 328 et seq., 337, 341, 351, 357, 358, 405.