18-3-505. Commissioners may authorize acceptance of negotiable paper in payment of fees; negotiable paper defined; no personal liability of county officers; date of payment; effect of dishonor; seizure.

(a) Each board of county commissioners may except where expressly prohibited by law authorize any county officer, agent or employee to accept negotiable paper as defined in subsection (c) of this section including paper arising from the use of a lender credit card as defined in W.S. 40-14-140(a)(ix) in payment of any tax, assessment, license, permit, fee, fine or other money owing to the county or collectible by the county in behalf of the state or other unit of government, or in payment of any bail deposit or other trust deposit. Any fees assessed for processing a credit card payment may be borne by the county or person tendering payment. Any fees assessed for processing a credit card payment collected on behalf of the state shall be borne by the county or person tendering payment and not by the state. With respect to lender credit card transactions the county is entitled to promptly present all negotiable paper to the bank upon which the negotiable paper is drawn for payment without any right of setoff or defense on the part of the issuer except as follows:

(i) Acceptance by the county of an expired card;

(ii) Acceptance of a card for payment of an amount in excess of what the issuer authorized the county to accept;

(iii) Negotiable paper that is so improperly completed that the issuer cannot identify the card holder.

(b) Any defense, claim or action that an individual using negotiable paper or a lender credit card might have against issuers of the card shall not apply to the county, its officers, agents or employees or relieve the individual of responsibility for payment.

(c) As used in this section "negotiable paper" means money orders, checks and drafts, including, without limitation, sales drafts and checks and drafts signed by a holder of a lender credit card issued by a bank maintaining a revolving loan account as defined in W.S. 40-14-308, for lender credit card holders.

(d) Any county officer, agent or employee who accepts negotiable paper pursuant to and in conformity with authorization from the board of county commissioners is not personally liable if the paper is dishonored. Any losses arising from dishonored paper shall be allocated to the respective funds for which the negotiable paper was accepted. In the event of losses from dishonored paper when the county or any of its officers are collecting funds for the state or any other level or unit of government, such losses shall be allocated to and accepted by the governmental entity for whom the collections were made.

(e) The acceptance of negotiable paper constitutes conditional payment for the amount owing. If the paper is not dishonored the payment shall be effective on the date the paper was accepted by the county officer, agent or employee. If the paper is dishonored in the course of collection the conditional payment is of no effect and any receipt, certificate or license issued upon acceptance of the negotiable paper is void. In the event any property including motor vehicle license plates is transferred or issued by the county or any of its officers, agents or employees upon acceptance of negotiable paper, and the paper is subsequently dishonored the county may rescind the transaction and a sheriff or other law enforcement officer may without prior court proceedings seize the property. Neither the rescission nor seizure relieves the person presenting the negotiable paper from further civil or criminal liabilities as may be provided by law.