2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE NINETEEN - Negotiable Instruments (§§ 1-24 — 2409) › Subtitle 2 - Commercial Transactions (§§ 401 — 2409) › Chapter 43 - General Provisions (§§ 501 — 755) › Subchapter I - General Provisions and Definitions (§§ 501 — 519) › § 503 - Definitions

(a) In §§ 501-755 of this title:
(1) Acceptor. — Means a drawee who has accepted a draft.
(2) Drawee. — Means a person ordered in a draft to make payment.
(3) Drawer. — Means a person who signs or is identified in a draft as a person ordering payment.
(4) Good faith. — Means honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing.
(5) Maker. — Means a person who signs or is identified in a note as a person undertaking to pay.
(6) 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.
(7) 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 §§ 801-1004 of this title.
(8) Party. — Means a party to an instrument.
(9) 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.
(10) Prove. — With respect to a fact means to meet the burden of establishing the fact (§ 451(8) of this title).
(11) Remitter. — Means a person who purchases an instrument from its issuer if the instrument is payable to an identified person other than the purchaser.
(b) Other definitions applying to §§ 501-755 of this title and the sections in which they appear are:
Acceptance Section 659
Accommodated party Section 669
Accommodation party Section 669
Alteration Section 657
Anomalous indorsement Section 555
Blank indorsement Section 555
Cashier’s check Section 504
Certificate of deposit Section 504
Certified check Section 659
Check Section 504
Consideration Section 603
Draft Section 504
Holder in due course Section 602
Incomplete instrument Section 515
Indorsement Section 554
Indorser Section 554
Instrument Section 504
Issue Section 505
Issuer Section 505
Negotiable instrument Section 504
Negotiation Section 551
Note Section 504
Payable at a definite time Section 508
Payable on demand Section 508
Payable to bearer Section 509
Payable to order Section 509
Payment Section 752
Person entitled to enforce Section 601
Presentment Section 701
Reacquisition Section 557
Special indorsement Section 555
Teller’s check Section 504
Transfer of instrument Section 553
Traveler’s check Section 504
Value Section 603
(c) The following definitions in other chapters apply to this chapter:
Bank Section 805
Banking day Section 804
Certificated security Section 1702(1)(a)
Clearing house Section 804
Collecting bank Section 805
Deposit[o]ry bank Section 805
Documentary draft Section 804
Intermediary bank Section 805
Item Section 804
Payor bank Section 805
Security Section 1702(1)(c)
Suspension of payment Section 804
Uncertificated security Section 1702(1)(b)
(d) In addition, §§ 401-458 contains general definitions and principles of construction and interpretation applicable throughout this chapter.
History —Aug. 17, 1995, No. 208, § 2-103; Aug. 31, 1996, No. 176, § 2; Sept. 19, 1996, No. 241, § 5.