Holder in Due Course is a legal term to describe the person who has received a negotiable instrument in good faith and is unaware of any prior claim, or that there is a defect in the title of the person who negotiated it. For example; a third-party check is a holder in due course.
Full Answer
The holder in due course is a concept that refers to the party who holds an important, and often negotiable, document. This document is sometimes referred to as an instrument because it is often an instrument of payment. This might include a bank note, draft, or check. The holder is temporarily the owner of the document that holds value.
The Preservation of Consumers’ Claims and Defenses [Holder in Due Course Rule], formally known as the "Trade Regulation Rule Concerning Preservation of Consumers' Claims and Defenses," protects consumers when merchants sell a consumer's credit contracts to other lenders. Specifically, it preserves consumers' right to assert the same legal claims and …
Requirements for Being a Holder in Due Course. Under Section 3-302 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), to be a holder in due course (HDC), a transferee must fulfill the following: 1. Be a holder of a negotiable instrument; 2. Have taken it: a) for value, b) in good faith, c) without notice (1) that it is overdue or (2) has been dishonored ...
A holder in due course is a holder who has taken the instrument under the following conditions: (a)That it is complete and regular upon its face; (b) That he became the holder of it before it was overdue, and without notice that it had been previously dishonored, if such was the fact; (c) That he took it in good faith and for value; (d) That at the time it was negotiated to him he had no …
What the holder in due course gets is an instrument free of claims or defenses by previous possessors. A holder with such a preferred position can then treat the instrument almost as money, free from the worry that someone might show up and prove it defective.
The holder-in-due-course doctrine is important because it allows the holder of a negotiable instrument to take the paper free from most claims and defenses against it. Without the doctrine, such a holder would be a mere transferee.
Again, a holder is a person who possesses a negotiable instrument “payable to bearer or, the case of an instrument payable to an identified person, if the identified person is in possession.” Uniform Commercial Code, Section 1-201 (20). An instrument is payable to an identified person if she is the named payee, or if it is indorsed to her. So a holder is one who possesses an instrument and who has all the necessary indorsements.
Section 3-303 of the UCC describes what is meant by transferring an instrument “for value.” In a broad sense, it means the holder has given something for it, which sounds like consideration. But “value” here is not the same as consideration under contract law. Here is the UCC language:
Value is not limited to cash or the fulfillment of a contractual obligation. A holder who acquires a lien on, or a security interest in, an instrument other than by legal process has taken for value. 3.
A holder is a person in possession of an instrument payable to bearer or to the identified person possessing it. But a holder’s rights are ordinary, as we noted briefly in Chapter 22 "Nature and Form of Commercial Paper". If a person to whom an instrument is negotiated becomes nothing more than a holder, the law of commercial paper would not be ...
A mere holder is simply an assignee, who acquires the assignor’s rights but also his liabilities; an ordinary holder must defend against claims and overcome defenses just as his assignor would. The holder in due course is really the crux of the concept of commercial paper and the key to its success and importance.
A blank indorsement is one that does not indicate a particular indorsee, and it also creates bearer paper.
If a check has been marked "payment refused - not sufficient funds" a person in possession of it can qualify as a holder in due course.
An instrument that is payable to a specific payee or indorsee is bearer paper.
C) A transfer that creates no new legal obligations.
A) Indorsements can convert bearer paper to order paper, but not vice versa.
Under the red light doctrine a person cannot become a holder in due course of an instrument if there is obvious evidence of an irregularity in the instrument.
D) An assignment can transfer no greater rights than those held by the transferor, whereas the transferee in a negotiation can receive greater rights than those held by the transferor.
The holder-in-due-course doctrine is important because it allows the holder of a negotiable instrument to take the paper free from most claims and defenses against it. Without the doctrine, such a holder would be a mere transferee.
The shelter rule#N#Under Article 3 of the Uniform Commercial Code, the transferee of an instrument acquires the same rights his or her transferor had.#N#provides that the transferee of an instrument acquires the same rights that the transferor had. Thus a person who does not himself qualify as an HDC can still acquire that status if some previous holder (someone “upstream”) was an HDC.
Section 3-303 of the UCC describes what is meant by transferring an instrument “for value.” In a broad sense, it means the holder has given something for it, which sounds like consideration. But “value” here is not the same as consideration under contract law. Here is the UCC language:
Again, a holder is a person who possesses a negotiable instrument “payable to bearer or, the case of an instrument payable to an identified person, if the identified person is in possession.” Uniform Commercial Code, Section 1-201 (20). An instrument is payable to an identified person if she is the named payee, or if it is indorsed to her. So a holder is one who possesses an instrument and who has all the necessary indorsements.
A mere holder is simply an assignee, who acquires the assignor’s rights but also his liabilities; an ordinary holder must defend against claims and overcome defenses just as his assignor would. The holder in due course is really the crux of the concept of commercial paper and the key to its success and importance.
3. Antecedent debt. Likewise, taking an instrument in payment of, or as security for, a prior claim, whether or not the claim is due, is a taking for value.
Carter argues that its motion for summary judgment should have been granted because, as a holder in due course, it has the right to recover on the checks from the drawer, Omni.