A bailee who in good faith including observance of reasonable commercial standards has received goods and delivered or otherwise disposed of them according to the terms of the document of title or pursuant to this article is not liable therefor. This rule applies even though the person from whom he received the goods had no authority to procure the document or to dispose of the goods and even though the person to whom he delivered the goods had no authority to receive them.
CREDIT(S)
(Dec. 30, 1963, 77 Stat. 728, Pub. L. 88-243, § 1.)
Prior Uniform Statutory Provision: Section 10, Uniform Warehouse Receipts Act; Section 13, Uniform Bills of Lading Act.
Changes: Consolidated and rewritten.
Purposes of Changes:
The generalized test of good faith and observance of reasonable commercial standards is substituted for the attempts to particularize what constitutes good faith in the cited sections of the old uniform acts. The section states explicitly what is perhaps an implication from the old acts that the common law rule of “innocent conversion” by unauthorized “intermeddling” with another's property is inapplicable to the operations of commercial carriers and warehousemen, who in good faith and with reasonable observance of commercial standards perform obligations which they have assumed and which generally they are under a legal compulsion to assume. The section applies to delivery to a fraudulent holder of a valid document as well as to delivery to the holder of an invalid document.
Definitional Cross References:
“Bailee”. Section 7-102.
“Delivery”. Section 1-201.
“Document of title”. Section 1-201.
“Good faith”. Section 1-201.
“Goods”. Section 7-102.
“Person”. Section 1-201.
“Receipt of goods”. Section 2-103.
“Term”. Section 1-201.
HISTORICAL AND STATUTORY NOTES
Prior Codifications
1981 Ed., § 28:7-404.
1973 Ed., § 28:7-404.