AI-assisted research summary: If a customer gives an item to a depositary bank for collection, the bank can become a holder (and sometimes a holder in due course) even without the customer’s indorsement; the bank also warrants that the item’s amount was paid to the customer or deposited to the customer’s account.
55-4-205. Depositary bank holder of unindorsed item. If a customer delivers an item to a depositary bank for collection: (1) the depositary bank becomes a holder of the item at the time it receives the item for collection if the customer at the time of delivery was a holder of the item, whether or not the customer indorses the item, and, if the bank satisfies the other requirements of Section 55-3-302 NMSA 1978, it is a holder in due course; and (2) the depositary bank warrants to collecting banks, the payor bank or other payor, and the drawer that the amount of the item was paid to the customer or deposited to the customer's account. History: 1978 Comp., § 55-4-205, enacted by Laws 1992, ch. 114, § 171. OFFICIAL COMMENTS UCC Official Comments © by ALI & the NCCUSL. Reproduced with permission of the PEB for the UCC. All rights reserved. Section 3-201(b) [55-3-201 NMSA 1978] provides that negotiation of an instrument payable to order requires indorsement by the holder. The rule of former Section 4- 205(1) was that the depositary bank may supply a missing indorsement of its customer unless the item contains the words "payee's indorsement required" or the like. The cases have differed on the status of the depositary bank as a holder if it fails to supply its customer's indorsement. Marine Midland Bank, N.A. v. Price, Miller, Evans & Flowers, 446 N.Y.S.2d 797 (N.Y.App.Div. 4th Dept. 1981), rev'd, 455 N.Y.S.2d 565 (N.Y. 1982). It is common practice for depositary banks to receive unindorsed checks under so-called "lock-box" agreements from customers who receive a high volume of checks. No function would be served by requiring a depositary bank to run these items through a machine that would supply the customer's indorsement except to afford the drawer and the subsequent banks evidence that the proceeds of the item reached the customer's account. Paragraph (1) provides that the depositary bank becomes a holder when it takes the item for deposit if the depositor is a holder. Whether it supplies the customer's indorsement is immaterial. Paragraph (2) satisfies the need for a receipt of funds by the depositary bank by imposing on that bank a warranty that it paid the customer or deposited the item to the customer's account. This warranty runs not only to collecting banks and to the payor bank or nonbank drawee but also to the drawer, affording protection to these parties that the depositary bank received the item and applied it to the benefit of the holder.