403.104 Negotiable instrument.

(1) Except as provided in subs. (3) and (4), “negotiable instrument" means an unconditional promise or order to pay a fixed amount of money, with or without interest or other charges described in the promise or order, if all of the following apply:

(a) It is payable to bearer or to order at the time that it is issued or first comes into possession of a holder.

(b) It is payable on demand or at a definite time.

(c) It does not state any other undertaking or instruction by the person promising or ordering payment to do any act in addition to the payment of money, but the promise or order may contain any of the following:

1. An undertaking or power to give, maintain or protect collateral to secure payment.

2. An authorization or power to the holder to confess judgment or realize on or dispose of collateral.

3. A waiver of the benefit of any law intended for the advantage or protection of an obligor.

(2) “Instrument" means a negotiable instrument.

(3) An order that meets all of the requirements of sub. (1), except sub. (1) (a), and otherwise falls within the definition of check in sub. (6) is a negotiable instrument and a check.

(4) A promise or order other than a check is not an instrument if, at the time that it is issued or first comes into possession of a holder, it contains a conspicuous statement, however expressed, to the effect that the promise or order is not negotiable or is not an instrument governed by this chapter.

(5) An instrument is a note if it is a promise and is a draft if it is an order. If an instrument falls within the definition of both note and draft, a person entitled to enforce the instrument may treat it as either.

(6) “Check" means a draft, other than a documentary draft, payable on demand and drawn on a bank or means a cashier's check, teller's check, or demand draft. An instrument may be a check even though it is described on its face by another term, such as money order.

(7) “Cashier's check" means a draft with respect to which the drawer and drawee are the same bank or branches of the same bank.

(8) “Teller's check" means a draft drawn by a bank on another bank, or payable at or through a bank.

(9) “Traveler's check" means an instrument that is payable on demand, that is drawn on or payable at or through a bank, that is designated by the term “traveler's check" or by a substantially similar term, and that requires, as a condition to payment, a countersignature by a person whose specimen signature appears on the instrument.

(10) “Certificate of deposit" means an instrument containing an acknowledgment by a bank that a sum of money has been received by the bank and a promise by the bank to repay the sum of money. A certificate of deposit is a note of the bank.

(11)

(a) Except as provided under par. (b), “demand draft" means a writing that is not signed by a customer, as defined in s. 404.104 (1) (e), that is created by a 3rd party under the purported authority of the customer for the purpose of charging the customer's account with a bank, that contains the account number of that account, and that contains at least one of the following:

1. The customer's name.

2. A notation that the customer authorized the demand draft.

3. The statement “No signature required," “Authorization on file," or “Signature on file," or words to that effect.

(b) “Demand draft" does not include a check drawn by a fiduciary, as defined in s. 403.307 (1) (a).

History: 1995 a. 449; 2003 a. 86.