§80106 — Title 49 Transportation | U.S. Code

Summary

Handing over a bill of lading with an agreement to transfer title makes the person who gets it the owner of the bill or the goods. If the bill is negotiable, was transferred for value, and needs the transferor’s endorsement, the new holder can require that endorsement and the transfer takes effect when it is signed. If the bill is nonnegotiable, the new owner must notify the carrier. After notice, the carrier is directly liable to the new owner for the obligations it owed the transferor immediately before notice. Before notice, the new owner’s rights can be lost by a creditor’s seizure or by notice to the carrier from the transferor or a later buyer. Notice is valid only if given to a carrier officer or agent with authority who has had reasonable time to inform whoever controls the goods.

Title 49, §80106

Transportation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The holder of a bill of lading may transfer the bill without negotiating it by delivery and agreement to transfer title to the bill or to the goods represented by it. Subject to the agreement, the person to whom the bill is transferred has title to the goods against the transferor.

(b)When a negotiable bill of lading is transferred for value by delivery without being negotiated and indorsement of the transferor is essential for negotiation, the transferee may compel the transferor to indorse the bill unless a contrary intention appears. The negotiation is effective when the indorsement is made.

(c)(1)When a transferee notifies the common carrier that a nonnegotiable bill of lading has been transferred under subsection (a) of this section, the carrier is obligated directly to the transferee for any obligations the carrier owed to the transferor immediately before the notification. However, before the carrier is notified, the transferee’s title to the goods and right to acquire the obligations of the carrier may be defeated by—

(A)garnishment, attachment, or execution on the goods by a creditor of the transferor; or

(B)notice to the carrier by the transferor or a purchaser from the transferor of a later purchase of the goods from the transferor.

(2)A common carrier has been notified under this subsection only if—

(A)an officer or agent of the carrier, whose actual or apparent authority includes acting on the notification, has been notified; and

(B)the officer or agent has had time, exercising reasonable diligence, to communicate with the agent having possession or control of the goods.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Revised SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 80106(a)49 App.:109 (1st sentence).Aug. 29, 1916, ch. 415, §§ 29 (1st sentence), 32, 33, 39 Stat. 543. 49 App.:112 (1st sentence). 80106(b)49 App.:113. 80106(c)49 App.:112 (2d–last sentences). In subsection (a), the words “without negotiating it” are added for clarity. In subsection (b), the text of 49 App.:113 (last sentence) is omitted as unnecessary because of the words “the transferee may compel the transferor”. In subsection (c)(1), before clause (A), the words “also acquires the right to notify” and “by the transferor or transferee of a straight bill” are omitted as unnecessary because of the restatement.

§80106 Transfer without negotiation

Summary

Title 49, §80106

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Citations & Metadata