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[CHAP. 582.]

AN ACT TO MAKE UNIFORM THE LAW OF WAREHOUSE RECEIPTS.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECTION 1.

PART I.

THE ISSUE OF WAREHOUSE RECEIPTS.

(1) In this act, unless the context or subject-matter otherwise requires:

"Action" includes counter claim, set-off and suit in equity. "Delivery" means voluntary transfer of possession from one person to another.

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"Fungible goods means goods of which any unit is, from its nature or by mercantile eustom, treated as the equivalent of any other unit. "" Goods means chattels or merchandise in storage, or which has been or is about to be stored.

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"Holder" of a receipt means a person who has both actual possession of such receipt and a right of property therein.

"Order" means an order by indorsement on the receipt. "Owner" does not include mortgagee or pledgee.

66 Person" includes a corporation or partnership, or two or more persons having a joint or common interest.

To "purchase" includes to take as mortgagee or as pledgee.

"Purchaser" includes mortgagee and pledgee.

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Receipt" means a warehouse receipt.

"Value" is any consideration sufficient to support a simple contract. An antecedent or pre-existing obligation, whether for money or not, constitutes value where a receipt is taken either in satisfaction thereof or as security therefor.

"Warehouseman " means a person lawfully engaged in the business of storing goods for profit.

(2) A thing is done "in good faith" within the meaning of this act, when it is in fact done honestly, whether it be done negligently or not. SECTION 2. Warehouse receipts may be issued by any warehouseman. SECTION 3. Warehouse receipts need not be in any particular form, but every such receipt must embody within its written or printed

terms:

(a) The location of the warehouse in which the goods are stored; (b) The date of issue of the receipt;

(c) The consecutive number of the receipt;

(d) A statement whether the goods received will be delivered to the bearer, to a specified person, or to a specified person or his order; (e) The rate of storage charges;

(f) A description of the goods or of the packages containing them; (g) The signature of the warehouseman, which may be made by his authorized agent;

(h) If the receipt is issued for goods of which the warehouseman is owner, either solely or jointly or in common with others, the fact of such ownership; and

(i) A statement of the amount of advances made and of liabilities

incurred for which the warehouseman claims a lien. If the precise amount of such advances made or of such liabilities incurred is, at the time of the issue of the receipt, unknown to the warehouseman or to his agent who issues it, a statement of the fact that advances have been made or liabilities incurred and the purpose thereof is sufficient.

A warehouseman shall be liable to any person injured thereby for all damage caused by the omission from a negotiable receipt of any of the terms herein required.

SECTION 4. A warehouseman may insert in a receipt, issued by him any other terms and conditions, provided that such terms and conditions shall not:

(a) Be contrary to the provisions of this act;

(b) In any wise impair his obligation to exercise that degree of care in the safe-keeping of the goods entrusted to him which a reasonably careful man would exercise in regard to similar goods of his own.

SECTION 5. A receipt in which it is stated that the goods received will be delivered to the depositor, or to any other specified person, is a nonnegotiable receipt.

SECTION 6. A receipt in which it is stated that the goods received will be delivered to the bearer, or to the order of any person named in such receipt, is a negotiable receipt.

No provision shall be inserted in a negotiable receipt that it is nonnegotiable. Such provision, if inserted, shall be void.

SECTION 7. When more than one negotiable receipt is issued for the same goods, the word "duplicate" shall be plainly placed upon the face of every such receipt except the one first issued. A warehouseman shall be liable for all damage caused by his failure so to do to any one who purchased the subsequent receipt for value, supposing it to be an original, even though the purchase be after the delivery of the goods by the warehouseman to the holder of the original receipt.

SECTION 8. A non-negotiable receipt shall have plainly placed upon its face by the warehouseman issuing it "non-negotiable", or "not negotiable." In case of the warehouseman's failure so to do, a holder of the receipt who purchased it for value, supposing it to be negotiable, may, at his option, treat such receipt as imposing upon the warehouseman the same liabilities which he would have incurred had the receipt been negotiable.

PART II.

OBLIGATIONS AND RIGHTS OF WAREHOUSEMEN UPON THEIR RECEIPTS.

SECTION 9. A warehouseman, in the absence of some lawful excuse provided by this act, is bound to deliver the goods upon a demand made either by the holder of a receipt for the goods or by the depositor, if such demand is accompanied with:

(a) An offer to satisfy the warehouseman's lien;

(b) An offer to surrender the receipt, if negotiable, with such indorsements as would be necessary for the negotiation of the receipt; and

(c) A readiness and willingness to sign, when the goods are delivered, an acknowledgment that they have been delivered, if such signature is requested by the warehouseman.

JUN 30 1928

In case the warehouseman refuses or fails to deliver the goods in compliance with a demand by the holder or depositor so accompanied, the burden shall be upon the warehouseman to establish the existence of a lawful excuse for such refusal.

SECTION 10. A warehouseman is justified in delivering the goods, subject to the provisions of the three following sections, to one who is:(a) The person lawfully entitled to the possession of the goods, or his agent;

(b) A person who is either himself entitled to delivery by the terms. of a non-negotiable receipt issued for the goods, or who has written authority from the person so entitled either indorsed upon the receipt or written upon another paper; or

(c) A person in possession of a negotiable receipt by the terms of which the goods are deliverable to him or order or to bearer, or which has been indorsed to him or in blank by the person to whom delivery was promised by the terms of the receipt or by his mediate or immediate indorsee.

SECTION 11. Where a warehouseman delivers the goods to one who is not in fact lawfully entitled to the possession of them, the warehouseman shall be liable as for conversion to all having a right of property. or possession in the goods if he delivered the goods otherwise than as authorized by subdivisions (b) and (c) of the preceding section, and though he delivered the goods as authorized by said subdivisions, he shall be so liable if prior to such delivery he had either:

(a) Been requested, by or on behalf of the person lawfully entitled. to a right of property or possession in the goods, not to make such delivery; or

(b) Had information that the delivery about to be made was to one not lawfully entitled to the possession of the goods.

SECTION 12. Except as provided in section thirty-five, when a warehouseman delivers goods for which he had issued a negotiable receipt, the negotiation of which would transfer the right to the possession of the goods, and fails to take up and cancel the receipt, he shall be liable to any one who purchases for value in good faith such receipt, for failure to deliver the goods to him, whether such purchaser acquired title to the receipt before or after the delivery of the goods by the warehouseman. SECTION 13. Except as provided in section thirty-five, when a warehouseman delivers part of the goods for which he had issued a negotiable receipt and fails either to take up and cancel such receipt, or to place plainly upon it a statement of what goods or packages have been delivered, he shall be liable to any one who purchases for value in good faith such receipt, for failure to deliver all the goods specified in the receipt, whether such purchaser acquired title to the receipt before or after the delivery of any portion of the goods by the warehouseman.

SECTION 14. The alteration of a receipt shall not excuse the warehouseman who issued it from any liability if such alteration was: (a) Immaterial;

(b) Authorized; or

(c) Made without fraudulent intent.

If the alteration was authorized, the warehouseman shall be liable according to the terms of the receipt as altered. If the alteration was

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