Libro III · Título Primero Capítulo I. Disposiciones generales

Negotiable instruments are the documents that incorporate a literal and autonomous right, whose exercise or transfer is impossible independently of the instrument. Negotiable instruments have the status of movable property.

Only those negotiable instruments that meet the requirements proper to each instrument in particular and the following general requirements shall produce the effects provided in this Code:

1.The name of the instrument in question.

2.The date and place of creation.

3.The rights that the instrument incorporates.

4.The place and the date of performance or exercise of those rights.

5.The signature of the person who creates it. In serial instruments, signatures may be stamped by any controlled system and they must bear at least one handwritten signature.

If the place of creation is not mentioned, the domicile of the creator shall be deemed to be such place. If the place of performance or exercise of the rights that the instrument sets forth is not mentioned, the domicile of the creator of the instrument shall be deemed to be such place. If the creator has several domiciles, the holder may choose among them; the holder shall have the same right of choice if the instrument designates several places of performance.

The incurable omission of mentions or essential requirements that every negotiable instrument must contain does not affect the business or legal act that gave rise to the issuance of the document.

If some requirements or mentions are omitted in a negotiable instrument, any legitimate holder may complete it before presenting it for its acceptance or for its collection. The exceptions derived from the failure to comply with what was agreed to complete it may not be asserted against the acquirer in good faith.

A negotiable instrument that has its amount written in words and figures shall, in case of difference, be valid for the sum written in words. If the amount is expressed several times in words or in figures, the document shall, in case of difference, be valid for the lesser sum.

The holder of a negotiable instrument, in order to exercise the right that is set forth in it, is obliged to exhibit it and deliver it at the moment of being paid. If it is only paid partially, or as to the ancillary part, he must mention the payment on the instrument and give, separately, the corresponding receipt.

The transmission of a negotiable instrument comprises the principal right that is set forth in it and the guarantees and accessory rights.

The reclamation, encumbrance or any other charge on the right set forth in the negotiable instrument or of the merchandise represented by it shall not have any effect, if it is not carried out on the instrument itself.

The holder of a negotiable instrument may not change its form of circulation without the consent of the issuer, unless otherwise provided by law.

The signatory of a negotiable instrument is bound even though the instrument has entered into circulation against his will. If the death or incapacity of the signatory of an instrument occurs, the obligation subsists.

The incapacity of any of the signatories of a negotiable instrument, the fact that false signatures or signatures of imaginary persons appear on it, or the circumstance that, for any reason, the instrument does not bind any of the signatories, or the persons who appear as such, do not invalidate the obligations of the other persons who subscribe it.

In case of alteration of the text of a negotiable instrument, the signatories subsequent to it are bound according to the terms of the altered text, and the prior signatories, according to the terms of the original text. When it cannot be verified whether a signature has been placed before or after the alteration, it is presumed that it was placed before.

When any of the acts that the holder of a negotiable instrument must obligatorily carry out must be effected within a time limit whose last day is not a business day, the term shall be understood to be extended until the first following business day. The intermediate non-business days shall be counted for the computation of the time limit. Neither the legal nor the contractual terms shall include the day that serves as their starting point.

For a person who does not know how to sign or cannot sign, another person may subscribe the negotiable instruments at his request, and that person's signature shall be authenticated by a notary or by the secretary of the municipality of the place.

All the signatories of the same act of a negotiable instrument shall be bound jointly and severally. The payment of the instrument by one of the joint and several signatories does not confer on the person who pays, with respect to the others who signed in the same act, any rights or actions other than those that correspond to a joint and several debtor against the other co-obligors; but it leaves open the actions on the instrument that may correspond against the obligated parties.

The timely presentation of a negotiable instrument and the refusal of its acceptance or of its payment shall be recorded by means of the protest. Unless expressly provided by law, no other act may replace the protest.

The creator of the instrument may exempt the holder from protesting it, if he inserts in it the clause: without protest, without expenses, or another equivalent. This clause shall not exempt the holder from the obligation to present the instrument nor, where applicable, from giving notice of the lack of payment to the parties obligated in the recourse action; but the proof of the lack of timely presentation shall be the burden of the person who invokes it against the holder. If, despite this clause, the holder makes the protest, the expenses shall be for his account.

By means of the aval, the payment of the negotiable instruments that contain an obligation to pay money may be guaranteed in whole or in part.

Any of the signatories of a negotiable instrument or a person who has not intervened in it may provide the aval.

The aval must appear on the negotiable instrument itself or on a sheet attached to it. It shall be expressed with the formula, per aval, or another equivalent, and must bear the signature of the person who provides it. The mere signature placed on the instrument, when no other meaning can be attributed to it, shall be taken as an aval.

If the amount is not indicated in the aval, it is understood that it guarantees the total amount of the negotiable instrument.

The aval guarantor shall be bound to pay the negotiable instrument up to the amount of the aval, and his obligation shall be valid even when the obligation of the guaranteed person is null for any reason.

The aval must indicate the person for whom it is provided. In the absence of indication, the obligations of the signatory who releases the greatest number of obligated parties shall be understood to be guaranteed.

The aval guarantor who pays acquires the rights derived from the negotiable instrument against the guaranteed person and against those who are responsible with respect to that person by virtue of the instrument.

The person who, on any ground, subscribes a negotiable instrument in the name of another, without legal authority to do so, binds himself personally as if he had acted in his own name.

The express or tacit ratification of the acts referred to in the preceding paragraph, by the person who may legally authorize them, transfers to the apparent principal, from the date of the act that is ratified, the obligations that arise from it.

The ratification that results from acts that necessarily imply the acceptance of the act itself or of any of its consequences is tacit. The express ratification may be made on the negotiable instrument itself or in a different document.

The rights and obligations derived from the acts or contracts that have given rise to the creation or transmission of the negotiable instrument shall be governed by the provisions of this Code, when they cannot be exercised or performed separately from the instrument.

The issuance or transmission of a negotiable instrument shall not produce, unless by express agreement, the extinction of the relationship that gave rise to such issuance or transmission.

The causal action may be exercised by returning the instrument to the defendant, and it shall proceed only in the case that the plaintiff has carried out the acts necessary so that the defendant may exercise the actions that could correspond to him by virtue of the instrument.

Once the action on the instrument against the creditor is extinguished, the holder of the instrument who lacks a causal action against the creditor, and lacks an action on the instrument or a causal action against the other signatories, may demand from the creator the sum by which the latter has been enriched to his detriment. This action prescribes in one year, counted from the day on which the action on the instrument was extinguished.

The negotiable instruments given in payment are presumed to be received under the condition: subject to good collection, whatever the reason for the delivery.

The instruments representing merchandise attribute to their legitimate holder the right to the delivery of the merchandise specified in them, its possession and the power to dispose of it through the transmission of the instrument.

The reclamation of the merchandise represented by the instruments to which this article refers may only be made through the reclamation of the instrument itself, in accordance with the rules applicable for that purpose.

The provisions of this Book III shall not apply to tickets, tokens, passes, lottery tickets and other documents that are not destined to circulate and that serve exclusively to identify the person who has the right to demand the corresponding performance.

The instruments of the public debt, the bank notes and other equivalent instruments are not governed by this Code, but by their special laws.

The person who possesses the instrument in accordance with its form of circulation shall be considered its owner.