1896de Book2 Chapter07 Title21

GERMAN CIVIL CODE OF 1896

• Based on the English Translation by: Wang, Chung Hui (1907). The German Civil Code, translated and annotated with historical introduction and appendices. London: Stevens and Sons. [available on Archive.org]

BOOK II. Law of Obligations.

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Chapter VII. Particular Kinds of Obligations.

Title XXI. Orders to Pay or Deliver.

Section 783.

• If a person delivers an instrument to a third party in which he directs another to pay or deliver money, negotiable instruments, or other fungible things to the third party, the latter is authorized to procure payment or delivery in his own name from the drawee; the drawee is authorized to pay or deliver to the payee of the order on account of the drawer.

Section 784.

• [I] If the drawee accepts the order he is bound to make payment or delivery to the payee; he may set up against him only the defences which affect the validity of the acceptance, or result from the tenor of the order or of the acceptance, or which the drawee has directly against the payee.
• [II] The acceptance is made by a written note on the order. If the note has been placed on the order before its delivery to the payee, the acceptance becomes effective in his favour only upon delivery.

Section 785.

• The drawee is bound to make payment or delivery only on delivery of the order.

Section 786.

• The claim of the payee against the drawee arising from the acceptance is barred by prescription in three years.

Section 787.

• [I] In the case of an order upon a debt the drawee, by his payment or delivery, is released from the debt to the amount thereof.
• [II] The drawee is not bound to the drawer to accept the order or to make payment or delivery to the payee merely because he is a debtor of the drawer.

Section 788.

• If a drawer issues an order for the purpose of making payment or delivery due from him to the payee, then, even if the drawee accepts the order, the payment or delivery is not made until payment or delivery by the drawee to the payee.

Section 789.

• If a drawee refuses acceptance before the arrival of the time for payment or delivery, or if he refuses the payment or delivery, the payee shall give notice to the drawer without delay. The same applies even if the payee cannot or will not enforce the order.

Section 790.

• A drawer may revoke his order as against the drawee, so long as the drawee has not accepted the order in favour of the payee, or has not made payment or delivery. This applies even though the drawer by the revocation acts contrary to an obligation imposed upon him in favour of the payee.

Section 791.

• An order to pay or deliver is not extinguished by the death or occurrence of disposing incapacity of one of the parties.

Section 792.

• [I] The payee may, by contract with a third party, transfer the order to him, even if it has not yet been accepted. The declaration of transfer is required to be in writing. The delivery of the order to the third party is necessary for such transfer.
• [II] The drawer may exclude the transfer. The exclusion is effective against the drawee only if it appears from the order itself, or if it has been communicated by the drawer to the drawee before the latter accepts the order or makes payment or delivery.
• [III] If the drawee accepts the order in favour of the transferee, he may not set up any defences from any legal relation existing between himself and the payee. For the rest, the provisions applicable to the assignment of a claim apply mutatis mutandis to the transfer of the order.