Obligation of issuer of note or cashier's check

84-3-412. Obligation of issuer of note or cashier's check. The issuer of a note or cashier's check or other draft drawn on the drawer is obliged to pay the instrument (a) according to its terms at the time it was issued or, if not issued, at the time it first came into possession of a holder, or (b) if the issuer signed an incomplete instrument, according to its terms when completed, to the extent stated in K.S.A. 84-3-115 and 84-3-407. The obligation is owed to a person entitled to enforce the instrument or to an endorser who paid the instrument under K.S.A. 84-3-415. History: L. 1991, ch. 296, § 49; February 1, 1992. KANSAS COMMENT, 1996 This section is identical to the 1995 Official Text except that the lower case roman numerals have been replaced by lower case letters. This section is derived from the former 84-3-413(1). Historical case and statutory references can be obtained from the 1965 and 1983 bound volume 7 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated. This section and the next state the basic obligations of makers of notes and acceptors of drafts. The maker of a note (and the acceptor of a draft, 84-3-413) are obligated to pay when the instrument is due. They are "primarily" liable in the sense that they may be sued without any conditions precedent except maturity of the instrument. By comparison, the drawer of a check and indorsers are "secondarily" liable in that the holder may not sue the drawer or indorsers until certain procedural conditions—presentment, dishonor, and, for indorsers, notice of dishonor—have been met. Although 84-3-104(g) describes a cashier's check (a check drawn by a bank on itself), the practical effect of a bank ordering itself to pay the instrument amounts to a promise by the bank to pay, and this section recognizes that. The maker of the note is liable to pay the note as issued, and if the note was not issued, that may provide a personal defense for the maker, but it is not good against a holder in due course. See 84-3-105. If an incomplete instrument is issued and filled in by another in an unauthorized fashion, that too can be a personal defense, which is not good against a holder in due course. Revisor's Note: Former section 84-3-412 was repealed by L. 1991, ch. 296, § 111 and the number reassigned to the current text.