Libro III · Título Primero Capítulo V. De la letra de cambio

In addition to the provisions of article 386 of this Code, the bill of exchange must contain:

1.The unconditional order to pay a determined sum of money.

2.The name of the drawee.

3.The form of maturity.

In a bill of exchange payable at sight or at several days after sight, the drawer may state that the amount drawn will produce interest. In any other bill of exchange this stipulation shall be deemed not to be included.

The rate of interest must be indicated in the bill of exchange. In case this is missing, it shall be understood to be six percent (6%).

The interest runs from the date of the bill of exchange, unless another date is stated in it.

The bill of exchange may be drawn:

1.At sight.

2.At a certain time after sight.

3.At a certain time after date.

4.On a fixed day.

The bill of exchange with other forms of maturity or whose maturity is not indicated shall be considered payable at sight.

If a bill of exchange is drawn at one or several months after date or after sight, it shall mature on the day corresponding to that of its execution or presentation, of the month in which the payment must be made. If that month does not have a day corresponding to that of the date or to that of the presentation, the bill shall mature on the last day of the month.

If the maturity is designated for the beginning, middle or end of the month, these terms shall be understood to mean the first, fifteenth and last day of the corresponding month.

The expressions of eight days, one week, fifteen days, two weeks, a fortnight, or half a month, shall be understood, not as one or two entire weeks, but as periods of eight or fifteen effective days, respectively.

The bill of exchange may be drawn to the order or on account of a third party or of the drawer himself. In the latter case, the drawer shall be bound as acceptor, and if the bill is drawn at a certain time after sight, its presentation shall only have the effect of fixing the date of its maturity. With respect to the date of presentation, the provisions of article 452 of this Code shall be observed, where applicable.

The presentation shall be proven by an annotation subscribed by the drawer, or in its absence, by protest.

The drawer may designate as the place for the payment of the bill of exchange any determined domicile. The domiciliary party who pays shall be understood to do so on account of the principal obligated party.

The drawer shall be liable for the acceptance and for the payment of the bill of exchange. Any clause that exempts him from this liability shall be deemed not to be written.

The insertion of the clauses: documents against acceptance or documents against payment, or of the indications: D/a. or D/p. in the text of a bill of exchange to which documents are attached, shall oblige the holder of the bill of exchange not to deliver the documents except through the acceptance or the payment of the bill of exchange.

The bills of exchange payable at a certain time after sight must be presented for their acceptance within the year following their date. Any of the obligated parties may reduce that time limit if he states so in the bill of exchange. In the same form, the drawer may, in addition, extend the time limit and even prohibit the presentation of the bill of exchange before a determined time.

The presentation of the bills of exchange drawn on a fixed day or at a certain time after their date shall be optional; but the drawer, if the document so indicates, may convert it into mandatory and set a time limit for it to be carried out. The drawer may likewise prohibit the presentation before a determined time, if he states so in the bill of exchange.

When the presentation of the bill of exchange is optional, the holder may make it at the latest on the last business day prior to maturity.

The bill of exchange must be presented for its acceptance at the place and address designated in it. In the absence of indication of the place, the presentation shall be made at the establishment or at the residence of the drawee. If several places are designated, the holder may choose any of them.

If the drawer indicates a place of payment different from the domicile of the drawee, the latter must, upon accepting, indicate the name of the person who shall make the payment. If he does not indicate it, it shall be understood that the acceptor himself shall be bound to make the payment at the designated place.

If the bill of exchange is payable at the domicile of the drawee, the latter may, upon accepting it, indicate an address within the same place so that the bill of exchange be presented to him there for its payment, unless the drawer has expressly designated a different address.

The acceptance shall be recorded on the bill of exchange itself, by means of the word: accepted, or another equivalent, and the signature of the drawee. The mere signature of the drawee shall be enough for the bill of exchange to be considered accepted.

The acceptance does not suppose, with respect to the drawer, the provision of funds, and the acceptor may demand their delivery even after the bill of exchange has been accepted.

If the bill is payable at a certain time after sight or when it must be presented, by virtue of special indication, within a determined time limit, the acceptor must indicate the date on which he accepted, and if he omits it, he may record it for the holder.

The acceptance must be unconditional, but it may be limited to a lesser amount than that expressed in the bill of exchange.

Any other modality introduced by the acceptor shall be equivalent to a refusal of acceptance, but the drawee shall be bound in the terms of the declaration that he has subscribed.

The acceptance that the drawee crosses out, before returning the bill of exchange to the holder, is considered refused.

The acceptance converts the acceptor into the principal obligated party. The acceptor shall be bound on the instrument even toward the drawer; and he shall lack an action on the instrument against the latter and against the other signatories of the bill of exchange.

The obligation of the acceptor shall not be altered by the bankruptcy, interdiction or death of the drawer, even in the case that it has happened before the acceptance.

The bill of exchange must be presented for its payment on the day of its maturity or within the two following business days. Presenting it to a clearing house is equivalent to presenting it for payment.

The presentation for the payment of the bill of exchange at sight must be made within the year following the date of the bill. Any of the obligated parties may reduce that time limit, if he states so in the bill of exchange. The drawer may, in the same form, extend it and prohibit the presentation before a determined time.

The holder may not reject a partial payment; in that case he shall keep the bill in his possession and shall proceed in the form provided in article 389 of this Code.

The holder may not be obliged to receive the payment before the maturity of the bill of exchange.

The drawee who pays before maturity shall be liable for the validity of the payment.

If, once the bill of exchange has matured, it is not presented for its collection after three days from maturity, any obligated party may deposit in a Bank the amount of the same, at the expense and risk of the holder and without obligation to give notice to the latter. This deposit shall produce the effects of payment.

The protest shall be necessary only when the creator of the bill inserts on its front and in visible characters the clause: with protest. The clause: with protest, inserted by a person different from the drawer, shall be deemed not to be included. If, despite the protest not being necessary, the holder makes it, the expenses shall be for his account.

The fact that the protest is not necessary shall not exempt the holder of the bill from the obligation to present it, nor, where applicable, from giving notice of the lack of acceptance or 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.

In case the protest has been stipulated by the creator of the bill, it may not be replaced by any other act, unless otherwise provided by law. The protest shall prove the presentation of a bill of exchange and the refusal of its acceptance or of its payment.

The protest shall be made with the intervention of the notary, and its omission shall cause the lapse of the recourse actions.

The protest shall only be effective if it has been made in time and in compliance with the provisions of this section.

The protest shall be made at the places designated for the performance of the obligations or the exercise of the rights set forth in the instrument.

If the person against whom the protest is to be made is not present, the notary making it shall so record; and the proceeding shall not be suspended.

If the domicile of the person against whom the protest is to be made is unknown, it shall be made at the place chosen by the notary authorizing it.

The protest for lack of acceptance shall be made within the two business days following that of the presentation, but always before the date of maturity.

The protest for lack of payment shall be made within two business days following that of maturity.

If the bill of exchange was protested for lack of acceptance, it shall not be necessary to protest it for lack of payment.

Bills of exchange payable at sight shall only be protested for lack of payment. The same shall apply to bills of exchange whose presentation for acceptance is optional.

The protest shall be recorded by a note placed on the body of the bill or on a sheet attached to it; in addition, the notary making it shall draw up a record in which the following is stated:

1º.The literal reproduction of all that appears in the bill.

2º.The demand on the drawee or acceptor to accept or pay the bill, with the indication of whether or not that person was present.

3º.The grounds for the refusal of acceptance or payment.

4º.The signature of the person with whom the proceeding is taken, or the indication of the impossibility to sign or of their refusal.

5º.The statement of the place, date and hour at which the protest is made, and the signature of the authorizing official.

6º.The notary shall record said record in the protocol.

The notary who has made the protest shall retain the bill in his possession on the day of the proceeding and on the following day. During that period, the bill may be accepted or, as the case may be, anyone shall have the right to pay the amount of the bill plus accessories, including the expenses of the protest. Whoever accepts after the protest shall cover the expenses thereof.

The notary who has made the protest, or the holder of the instrument whose acceptance or payment has been refused, shall give notice of such circumstance to all the signatories of the instrument whose address appears in it, within the two business days following the date of the protest or of the presentation for acceptance or payment.

The person who omits the notice shall be liable, up to a sum equal to the amount of the bill of exchange, for the damages caused by their negligence.

If the bill is presented through a bank, the annotation of the bank regarding the refusal of acceptance or of payment shall be valid as a protest.

When the bill of exchange does not contain the sole clause, the taker shall have the right to have the drawer issue one or more identical copies, if the taker pays all the expenses they cause. Those copies shall contain in their text the indication: first, second and so on, according to the order of their issuance. In the absence of that indication, each copy shall be considered as a distinct bill of exchange. Any other holder may exercise that same right, through the immediate endorser, who in turn must address the one preceding him, and so on, until reaching the drawer.

The endorsers and guarantors are obliged to reproduce their respective signatures on the duplicates of the bill of exchange.

Payment made on one of the copies shall release from payment of all the others, but the drawee shall be bound by each copy he accepts.

The endorser who has endorsed the copies to different persons, as well as the subsequent endorsers, shall be bound by their endorsements, as if they appeared in distinct bills of exchange.

The person who has remitted one of the copies for acceptance must mention in the others the name and domicile of the person who has it in their possession, so that the holder of another copy may request the delivery of the copy sent for acceptance, and if they do not obtain it, they must make a protest to prove that that copy has not been delivered to them, and, where appropriate, another one to prove that they have not been able to obtain the acceptance or the payment with the copy they possess.

When the person who has in their possession the copy sent for acceptance is presented with two or more holders of the other copies, or of copies, they shall deliver it to the first who requests it, and if several present themselves simultaneously, they shall give preference to the holder of the copy marked with the lowest ordinal number.

The holder of a bill of exchange has the right to make copies of it. These must reproduce exactly the original, with the endorsements and all the statements it contains, and shall indicate where the copied part ends.

The handwritten signatures of the acceptor, of the endorsers and of the guarantors, made on the copy, bind the signatories as if they appeared in the original.

The person who has remitted the original for acceptance or who has deposited it must mention in the copies the name and domicile of the person in whose possession said original is found. The lack of this indication does not invalidate the original endorsements on the copies.

The person in whose possession the original is found is obliged to deliver it to the holder of the copy. The holder who, without the original, wishes to exercise their rights against the signatories of the copy, must prove by means of the protest that the original was not delivered to them upon their request.