---
title: O.C.G.A. § 11-3-203. Transfer of instrument; rights acquired by transfer.
collection: code
id: 11-3-203
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 11-3-203 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/11-3-203
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/11-3-203.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/11-3-203/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t11-(v9)-2022-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=b5451bbd_0#page=369
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: COMMERCIAL CODE / NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS / NEGOTIATION, TRANSFER, AND INDORSEMENT
---

# O.C.G.A. § 11-3-203. Transfer of instrument; rights acquired by transfer.

(a) An instrument is transferred when it is delivered by a person other than its issuer for the purpose of giving to the person receiving delivery the right to enforce the instrument.

(b) Transfer of an instrument, whether or not the transfer is a negotiation, vests in the transferee any right of the transferor to enforce the instrument, including any right as a holder in due course, but the transferee cannot acquire the rights of a holder in due course by a transfer, directly or indirectly, from a holder in due course if the transferee engaged in fraud or illegality affecting the instrument.

(c) Unless otherwise agreed, if an instrument is transferred for value and the transferee does not become a holder because of lack of indorsement by the transferor, the transferee has a specifically enforceable right to the unqualified indorsement of the transferor, but negotiation of the instrument does not occur until the indorsement is made.

(d) If a transferor purports to transfer less than the entire instrument, negotiation of the instrument does not occur. The transferee obtains no rights under this article and has only the rights of a partial assignee.

## History

Code 1981, § 11-3-203, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 1306, § 3.

## Law Reviews

For note, “The Law of Evidence in the Uniform Commercial Code,” see 1 Ga. L. Rev. 44 (1966).

For article discussing judicial activism in cases involving claims and defenses under the Uniform Commercial Code, see 17 Ga. L. Rev. 569 (1983).