Printable Format84-7-208. Altered warehouse receipts. 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.
History: L. 2007, ch. 90, § 14; July 1, 2008.
KANSAS COMMENT, 1996
This section holds a warehouseman to the terms of a negotiable receipt even though a blank has been filled in without authority. Under former K.S.A. 82-113 and current K.S.A. 34-256, any fraudulent and material alteration excuses the warehouseman from liability to deliver otherwise than according to the terms of original issue. This section expands the liability of the warehouseman who issues blank warehouse receipts. The policy of 84-7-208 is to place the risk of an incomplete receipt on the person who has made the unauthorized completion possible. This is normally the issuer.
The warehouseman's liability for unauthorized alterations, as contrasted with completions, is governed by the original tenor of the receipt. This rule corresponds to K.S.A. 34-256. Presumably, under this section, even the person who made the unauthorized alteration or a person who took the receipt with notice of it has the same rights as any other holder to enforce the receipt against the issuer according to its original tenor.
Article 7 does not define "alteration," but the definition in 84-3-407(a) would seem to apply by analogy.
This section differs from 84-7-306, the corresponding section imposing liability on a carrier. Section 84-7-306 does not impose liability on a carrier for unauthorized completion. There is no apparent reason for this difference.
Revisor's Note:
Former section 84-7-208 repealed by L. 2007, ch. 90, § 78 and the number reassigned to the current text.
Law Review and Bar Journal References:
"The Holder of U.C.C. Section 3-407(2)(a) and the Windfall Discharge," Charles C. Lewis, 26 W.L.J. 27, 69 (1986).