FEBRUARY 2010 EDITION: Legal Updates
Recent Jurisprudence - Endorsement Requirements When Corporations are Involved
Recently, Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación or SCJN) published in the Judicial Weekly of the Federation case decision Number VI.2o.C.J/315 entitled "Endorsements. Requirements when made by a legal entity." In such case, the SCJN held that when a legal entity (such as a corporation) endorses a negotiable instrument, said endorsement must contain the entity's name, as well as the nature of the legal authority of its individual representative who signs the endorsement. The foregoing, according to Mexico's highest court, is designed to allow the signatory to be identified, even if the signature itself is illegible. The SCJN in this case, notwithstanding the clear policy goal that negotiable instruments be freely transferable in circulation in order to facilitate commercial transaction without necessarily having to prove the authenticity of signatures or identification, which would give security and solidity to the transfer of such negotiable instruments and facilitate their circulation. This would in no way imply that when the final endorsing party is a legal entity, that such endorsement does not need to meet the above requirements which must not cause uncertainty or restrict the circulation of such documents; on the contrary, the requirements provide security to those responsible for paying that the party presenting the negotiable instrument for payment is the duly authorized representative of the entity holding such document.
