Legislative part

I. – The bearer may exercise his remedies against the endorsers, the drawer and the other obligees: 1° On maturity, if payment has not taken place; 2° Even before maturity: a) If there has been a total or partial refusal of acceptance; b) In the event of safeguard, reorganisation or judicial winding-up proceedings of the drawee, whether acceptor or not, cessation of its payments even if not recorded by a…

Refusal of acceptance or payment must be recorded in a notarised deed known as a protest faute d’acceptation or faute de paiement. The protest in default of acceptance must be made within the time limits fixed for presentation for acceptance. If, in the case provided for in the first paragraph of Article L. 511-16, the first presentation took place on the last day of the time limit, the protest may…

Where the bearer agrees to receive in payment either an ordinary cheque, a mandate to transfer funds to the Banque de France, or a postal cheque, the cheque or mandate must indicate the number and maturity of the instruments thus paid. However, this indication is not required for cheques or money orders created for the settlement between bankers of the balance of transactions carried out between them through a clearing…

When the last day of the period allowed for the completion of the act of notification of the non-execution of the money transfer order or postal cheque is a public holiday, this period is extended until the first working day following its expiry. Intermediate public holidays are included in the calculation of the period. Legal public holidays are treated in the same way as days on which, under the laws…

The bearer must give notice of non-acceptance or non-payment to his endorser within four working days following the day of the protest or the day of presentation in the case of a no-cost return clause. Notaries and bailiffs are required, under penalty of damages, where the bill indicates the name and domicile of the drawer of the bill of exchange, to notify the drawer within forty-eight hours of registration, by…

The drawer, an endorser or a guarantor may, by the clause “return without charge”, “without protest” or any other equivalent clause inscribed on the bill of exchange and signed, exempt the bearer from having a protest drawn up in order to exercise his remedies, in the absence of acceptance or in the absence of payment. This clause does not exempt the bearer from presenting the bill of exchange within the…

All those who have drawn, accepted, endorsed or guaranteed a bill of exchange are jointly and severally liable to the bearer. The bearer has the right to act against all these persons, individually or collectively, without being obliged to observe the order in which they have obliged themselves. The same right belongs to any signatory of a bill of exchange who has redeemed it. An action brought against one of…