Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.103 · Subchapter A. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS
DEFINITIONS.
Text — Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
(a) In this chapter:
(1) "Acceptor" means a drawee who has accepted a draft.
(2) Reserved.
(3) "Consumer transaction" means a transaction in which an individual incurs an obligation primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.
(4) "Drawee" means a person ordered in a draft to make payment.
(5) "Drawer" means a person who signs or is identified in a draft as a person ordering payment.
(6) Reserved.
(7) "Maker" means a person who signs or is identified in a note as a person undertaking to pay.
(8) "Order" means a written instruction to pay money signed by the person giving the instruction. The instruction may be addressed to any person, including the person giving the instruction, or to one or more persons jointly or in the alternative but not in succession. An authorization to pay is not an order unless the person authorized to pay is also instructed to pay.
(9) "Ordinary care" in the case of a person engaged in business means observance of reasonable commercial standards, prevailing in the area in which the person is located, with respect to the business in which the person is engaged. In the case of a bank that takes an instrument for processing for collection or payment by automated means, reasonable commercial standards do not require the bank to examine the instrument if the failure to examine does not violate the bank's prescribed procedures and the bank's procedures do not vary unreasonably from general banking usage not disapproved by this chapter or Chapter 4.
(10) "Party" means a party to an instrument.
(11) "Principal obligor," with respect to an instrument, means the accommodated party or any other party to the instrument against whom a secondary obligor has recourse under this chapter.
(12) "Promise" means a written undertaking to pay money signed by the person undertaking to pay. An acknowledgment of an obligation by the obligor is not a promise unless the obligor also undertakes to pay the obligation.
(13) "Prove" with respect to a fact means to meet the burden of establishing the fact (Section 1.201(b)(8)).
(14) Reserved.
(15) "Remitter" means a person who purchases an instrument from its issuer if the instrument is payable to an identified person other than the purchaser.
(16) "Remotely-created item" means an item that is created by a third party, other than the payor bank, under the purported authority of the drawer of the item for the purpose of charging the drawer's account with a bank and that does not bear a handwritten signature purporting to be the signature of the drawer.
(17) "Secondary obligor," with respect to an instrument, means (A) an indorser or an accommodation party, (B) a drawer having the obligation described in Section 3.414(d), or (C) any other party to the instrument that has recourse against another party to the instrument pursuant to Section 3.116(b).
(b) Other definitions applying to this chapter and the sections in which they appear are:
"Acceptance" Section 3.409.
"Accommodated party" Section 3.419.
"Accommodation party" Section 3.419.
"Account" Section 4.104.
"Alteration" Section 3.407.
"Anomalous indorsement" Section 3.205.
"Blank indorsement" Section 3.205.
"Cashier's check" Section 3.104.
"Certificate of deposit" Section 3.104.
"Certified check" Section 3.409.
"Check" Section 3.104.
"Consideration" Section 3.303.
"Draft" Section 3.104.
"Holder in due course" Section 3.302.
"Incomplete instrument" Section 3.115.
"Indorsement" Section 3.204.
"Indorser" Section 3.204.
"Instrument" Section 3.104.
"Issue" Section 3.105.
"Issuer" Section 3.105.
"Negotiable instrument" Section 3.104.
"Negotiation" Section 3.201.
"Note" Section 3.104.
"Payable at a definite time" Section 3.108.
"Payable on demand" Section 3.108.
"Payable to bearer" Section 3.109.
"Payable to order" Section 3.109.
"Payment" Section 3.602.
"Person entitled to enforce" Section 3.301.
"Presentment" Section 3.501.
"Reacquisition" Section 3.207.
"Special indorsement" Section 3.205.
"Teller's check" Section 3.104.
"Transfer of instrument" Section 3.203.
"Traveler's check" Section 3.104.
"Value" Section 3.303.
(c) The following definitions in other chapters apply to this chapter:
"Banking day" Section 4.104.
"Clearing house" Section 4.104.
"Collecting bank" Section 4.105.
"Depositary bank" Section 4.105.
"Documentary draft" Section 4.104.
"Intermediary bank" Section 4.105.
"Item" Section 4.104.
"Payor bank" Section 4.105.
"Suspends payments" Section 4.104.
(d) In addition, Chapter 1 contains general definitions and principles of construction and interpretation applicable throughout this chapter.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 921, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1996; Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 131, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 542, Sec. 10, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
Amended by:
Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 95 (S.B. 1563), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2005.
Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 95 (S.B. 1563), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2005.
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 427 (S.B. 1541), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2007.
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 427 (S.B. 1541), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2007.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
- Official file
- https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/BC/htm/BC.3.htm
- Text hash
- sha256 2189009af05aa6e9384a47c9b8e1c3afa5b098837e2c9bcc05647001b2ee3888
- Composed by
- compose_tx.py 2026-10-05: the Legislative Council's chapter files read in document order; verify_tx.py's independent reading (lxml DOM walk) agrees character for character
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Business & Commerce Code
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 1GENERAL PROVISIONSPrinted as Chapter 1
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 1.201GENERAL DEFINITIONS.Printed as Section 1.201(b)(8)
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.104NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENT.Printed as Section 3.104
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.105ISSUE OF INSTRUMENT.Printed as Section 3.105
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.108PAYABLE ON DEMAND OR AT DEFINITE TIME.Printed as Section 3.108
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.109PAYABLE TO BEARER OR TO ORDER.Printed as Section 3.109
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.115INCOMPLETE INSTRUMENT.Printed as Section 3.115
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.116JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY; CONTRIBUTION.Printed as Section 3.116(b)
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.201NEGOTIATION.Printed as Section 3.201
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.203TRANSFER OF INSTRUMENT; RIGHTS ACQUIRED BY TRANSFER.Printed as Section 3.203
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.204INDORSEMENT.Printed as Section 3.204
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.205SPECIAL INDORSEMENT; BLANK INDORSEMENT; ANOMALOUS INDORSEMENT.Printed as Section 3.205
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.207REACQUISITION.Printed as Section 3.207
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.301PERSON ENTITLED TO ENFORCE INSTRUMENT.Printed as Section 3.301
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.302HOLDER IN DUE COURSE.Printed as Section 3.302
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.303VALUE AND CONSIDERATION.Printed as Section 3.303
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.407ALTERATION.Printed as Section 3.407
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.409ACCEPTANCE OF DRAFT; CERTIFIED CHECK.Printed as Section 3.409
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.414OBLIGATION OF DRAWER.Printed as Section 3.414(d)
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.419INSTRUMENTS SIGNED FOR ACCOMMODATION.Printed as Section 3.419
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.501PRESENTMENT.Printed as Section 3.501
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.602PAYMENT.Printed as Section 3.602
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 4.104DEFINITIONS AND INDEX OF DEFINITIONS.Printed as Section 4.104
- Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 4.105"BANK"; "DEPOSITARY BANK"; "INTERMEDIARY BANK"; "COLLECTING BANK"; "PAYOR BANK"; "PRESENTING BANK".Printed as Section 4.105
Cited by 2 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 3.103. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
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