District Of Columbia § 28:7-208 - Altered warehouse receipts.

§ 28:7-208. Altered warehouse receipts.

28:7-208

If a blank in a negotiable tangible warehouse receipt has been filled in without authority, a good-faith purchaser for value and without notice of the lack of authority may treat the insertion as authorized. Any other unauthorized alteration leaves any tangible or electronic warehouse receipt enforceable against the issuer according to its original tenor.

Annotations

“Warehouse receipt”. Section 1-201.

“Value”. Section 1-204.

“Purchaser”. Section 1-201.

“Notice”. Section 1-202.

“Issuer”. Section 7-102.

“Good faith”. Section 1-201 [7-102].

2. Under the second sentence of this section, an unauthorized alteration whether made with or without fraudulent intent does not relieve the issuer of its liability on the warehouse receipt as originally executed. The unauthorized alteration itself is of course ineffective against the warehouse. The rule stated in the second sentence applies to both tangible and electronic warehouse receipts.

1. The execution of tangible warehouse receipts in blank is a dangerous practice. As between the issuer and an innocent purchaser the risks should clearly fall on the former. The purchaser must have purchased the tangible negotiable warehouse receipt in good faith and for value to be protected under the rule of the first sentence which is a limited exception to the general rule in the second sentence. Electronic document of title systems should have protection against unauthorized access and unauthorized changes. See 7-106. Thus the protection for good faith purchasers found in the first sentence is not necessary in the context of electronic documents.

To accommodate electronic documents of title.

Former Section 7-208.

“Warehouse receipt”. Section 1-201.

“Value”. Section 1-201.

“Purchaser”. Section 1-201.

“Notice”. Section 1-201.

“Issuer”. Section 7-102.

2. An unauthorized alteration whether made with or without fraudulent intent does not relieve the issuer of his liability on the warehouse receipt as originally executed. The unauthorized alteration itself is of course ineffective against the warehouseman.

1. The execution of warehouse receipts in blank is a dangerous practice. As between the issuer and an innocent purchaser the risks should clearly fall on the former.

Generally revised and simplified; explicit treatment of the situation where a blank in an executed document is filled without authority.

Section 13, Uniform Warehouse Receipts Act.