2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 55 - Uniform Commercial Code › Article 7 - Documents of Title › Part 1 - GENERAL › Section 55-7-102 - Definitions and index of definitions.

(a) In Chapter 55, Article 7 NMSA 1978, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) "bailee" means a person that by a warehouse receipt, bill of lading or other document of title acknowledges possession of goods and contracts to deliver them;
(2) "carrier" means a person that issues a bill of lading;
(3) "consignee" means a person named in a bill of lading to which or to whose order the bill promises delivery;
(4) "consignor" means a person named in a bill of lading as the person from which the goods have been received for shipment;
(5) "delivery order" means a record that contains an order to deliver goods directed to a warehouse, carrier or other person that in the ordinary course of business issues warehouse receipts or bills of lading;
(6) Reserved;
(7) "goods" means all things that are treated as movable for the purposes of a contract for storage or transportation;
(8) "issuer" means a bailee that issues a document of title or, in the case of an unaccepted delivery order, the person that orders the possessor of goods to deliver. The term includes a person for which an agent or employee purports to act in issuing a document if the agent or employee has real or apparent authority to issue documents, even if the issuer did not receive any goods, the goods were misdescribed or in any other respect the agent or employee violated the issuer's instructions;
(9) "person entitled under the document" means the holder, in the case of a negotiable document of title, or the person to which delivery of the goods is to be made by the terms of, or pursuant to instructions in a record under, a nonnegotiable document of title;
(10) Reserved;
(11) "sign" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:
(A) to execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
(B) to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic sound, symbol or process;
(12) "shipper" means a person that enters into a contract of transportation with a carrier; and
(13) "warehouse" means a person engaged in the business of storing goods for hire.
(b) Definitions in other articles applying to this article and the sections in which they appear are:
(1) "contract for sale", Section 55-2-106 NMSA 1978;
(2) "lessee in the ordinary course of business", Section 55-2A-103 NMSA 1978; and
(3) "receipt" of goods, Section 55-2-103 NMSA 1978.
(c) In addition, Chapter 55, Article 1 NMSA 1978 contains general definitions and principles of construction and interpretation applicable throughout this article.
History:
1953 Comp., § 50A-7-102, enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 96, § 7-102; 2005, ch. 144, § 52.
OFFICIAL COMMENTS
UCC Official Comments by ALI & the NCCUSL. Reproduced with permission of the PEB for the UCC. All rights reserved.
Prior Uniform Statutory Provision.
— Former Section 7-102 [55-7-102 NMSA 1978].
Changes.
— New definitions of "carrier," "good faith," "record," "sign," and "shipper." Other definitions revised to accommodate electronic mediums.
1. "Bailee" is used in this Article as a blanket term to designate carriers, warehousemen and others who normally issue documents of title on the basis of goods which they have received. The definition does not, however, require actual possession of the goods. If a bailee acknowledges possession when it does not have possession, the bailee is bound by sections of this Article which declare the "bailee's" obligations. (See definition of "Issuer" in this section and Sections 7-203 [55-7-203 NMSA 1978] and 7-301 [55-7-301 NMSA 1978] on liability in case of non-receipt.) A "carrier" is one type of bailee and is defined as a person that issues a bill of lading. A "shipper" is a person who enters into the contract of transportation with the carrier. The definitions of "bailee," "consignee," "consignor," "goods", and "issuer", are unchanged in substance from prior law. "Document of title" is defined in Article 1, and may be in either tangible or electronic form.
2. The definition of warehouse receipt contained in the general definitions section of this Act (Section 1-201 [55-1-201 NMSA 1978]) does not require that the issuing warehouse be "lawfully engaged" in business or for profit. The warehouse's compliance with applicable state regulations such as the filing of a bond has no bearing on the substantive issues dealt with in this Article. Certainly the issuer's violations of law should not diminish its responsibility on documents the issuer has put in commercial circulation. But it is still essential that the business be storing goods "for hire" (Section 1-201 and this section). A person does not become a warehouse by storing its own goods.
3. When a delivery order has been accepted by the bailee it is for practical purposes indistinguishable from a warehouse receipt. Prior to such acceptance there is no basis for imposing obligations on the bailee other than the ordinary obligation of contract which the bailee may have assumed to the depositor of the goods. Delivery orders may be either electronic or tangible documents of title. See definition of "document of title" in Section 1-201 [55-1-201 NMSA 1978].
4. The obligation of good faith imposed by this Article and by Article 1, Section 1-304 [55-1-304 NMSA 1978] includes the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing.
5. Pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code Amendments (2022) (2022 Amendments), paragraphs (10) and (11) of Subsection (a) have been deleted as unnecessary. Section 1-201 [55-1-201 NMSA 1978] includes substantially equivalent definitions of "record" and "sign."
6. "Person entitled under the document" is moved from former Section 7-403 [55-7-403 NMSA 1978].
In the case of a negotiable document of title, the person entitled is the holder.
See
Section 1-201(b)(21) [55-1-201 NMSA 1978] (defining "holder"). For a nonnegotiable document of title, the person entitled is the person provided in the terms of the document or instructions under the document. A transferee of a nonnegotiable document to which the document has been delivered acquires the transferee's rights and rights that the transferor had actual authority to convey. Section 7-504(a) [55-7-504 NMSA 1978]. However, until but not after the bailee receives notice of a transfer, such a transferee's rights are subject to those of persons identified in Section 7-504(b), including "as against the bailee, by good faith dealings of the bailee with the transferor." Moreover, such a transferee is not a person entitled under the document unless so provided in the document or in instructions under the document.
Article 7 does not explain what constitutes an "instruction under" a nonnegotiable document, but instead leaves it to commercial practice, including usage of trade (Section 1-303(c) [55-1-303 NMSA 1978]). In practice the term is generally understood to include a delivery order or other instruction to the bailee, by the person named in the document, to deliver the goods to a transferee of the document or to another person. A delivery order or other instruction under a nonnegotiable document should be distinguished from a mere "notice" or "notification" to the bailee of a transfer or security interest, as contemplated by Sections 7-504(b) and 9-312(d)(2) [55-9-312 NMSA 1978]. However, an instruction could, functionally, also constitute such a notice.
7. These definitions apply in this Article unless the context otherwise requires. The "context" is intended to refer to the context in which the defined term is used in the Uniform Commercial Code. The definition applies whenever the defined term is used unless the context in which the defined term is used in the statute indicates that the term was not used in its defined sense.
See
comment to Section 1-201 [55-1-201 NMSA 1978].
Point 1: Sections 1-201 [55-1-201 NMSA 1978], 7-203 [55-7-203 NMSA 1978] and 7-301 [55-7-301 NMSA 1978].
Point 2: Sections 1-201 and 7-203.
Point 3: Section 1-201.
Point 4: Section 1-304 [55-1-304 NMSA 1978].
Point 5: Section 9-102 [55-9-102 NMSA 1978] and 2-103 [55-2-103 NMSA 1978].
See general comment to document of title in Section 1-201.
"Bill of lading". Section 1-201 [55-1-201 NMSA 1978].
"Contract". Section 1-201.
"Contract for sale". Section 2-106 [55-2-106 NMSA 1978].
"Delivery". Section 1-201.
"Document of title". Section 1-201.
"Person". Section 1-201.
"Purchase". Section 1-201.
"Receipt of goods". Section 2-103 [55-2-103 NMSA 1978].
"Right". Section 1-201.
"Warehouse receipt". Section 1-201.
ANNOTATIONS
Repeal and reenactments.
— Laws 2005, ch. 144, § 52 repealed former 55-7-102 NMSA 1978, as enacted by Laws 1961, ch. 96, § 7-102, and enacted a new section, effective January 1, 2006.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. —
15A Am. Jur. 2d Commercial Code §§ 39, 49; 78 Am. Jur. 2d Warehouses §§ 2, 41, 52.
80 C.J.S. Shipping §§ 111 to 114; 82 C.J.S. Statutes § 315; 93 C.J.S. Warehousemen and Safe Depositaries §§ 1, 16.