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The Laws of Zambia

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REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA

THE CHEQUES ACT

CHAPTER 424 OF THE LAWS OF ZAMBIA

CHAPTER 424 THE CHEQUES ACT

THE CHEQUES ACT

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

Section

1. Short title

2. Protection of bankers paying unendorsed or irregularly endorsed cheques, etc.

3. Rights of bankers collecting cheques not endorsed by holders

4. Unendorsed cheques as evidence of payment

5. Protection of bankers collecting payment of cheques, etc.

6. Application of certain provisions of Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, to instruments
not being bills of exchange

7. Government to be regarded as a customer of banker

8. Construction, saving and non-application of British Acts

SCHEDULE

CHAPTER 424

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CHEQUES Federal Act
5 of 1959
Government Notices
441 of 1963
497 of 1964
Statutory Instrument
159 of 1965

An Act to amend the law relating to cheques and certain other instruments.

[1st August, 1959

1. This Act may be cited as the Cheques Act.

(As amended by G.N. No. 441 of 1963)

Short title

2. (1) Where a banker in good faith and in the ordinary course of business pays a
cheque drawn on him which is not endorsed or is irregularly endorsed, he does not, in
doing so, incur any liability by reason only of the absence of, or irregularity in,
endorsement and he is deemed to have paid it in due course.

Protection of bankers
paying unendorsed or
irregularly endorsed
cheques, etc.

(2) Where a banker in good faith and in the ordinary course of business pays any
such instrument as the following, namely:

(a) a document issued by a customer of his which, though not a bill of
exchange, is intended to enable a person to obtain payment from him of the
sum mentioned in the document;

(b) a draft payable on demand drawn by him upon himself, whether payable at
the head office or some other office of his bank;

he does not, in doing so, incur any laibility by only of the absence of, or irregularity, in
endorsement, and the payment discharges the instrument.

3. A banker who gives value for, or has a lien on, a cheque payable to order which
the holder delivers to him for collection without endorsing it, has such (if any) rights as he
would have had if, upon delivery, the holder had endorsed it in blank.

Rights of bankers
collecting cheques not
endorsed by holders

4. An unendorsed cheque or other instrument to which subsection (2) of section
two applies which appears to have been paid by the banker on whom it is drawn is
evidence of the receipt by the payee of the sum payable by the cheque or other
instrument, as the case may be.

Unendorsed cheques
as evidence of
payment

5. (1) Where a banker, in good faith and without negligence- Protection of bankers
collecting payment of
cheques, etc.

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Copyright Ministry of Legal Affairs, Government of the Republic of Zambia

(a) receives payment for a customer of an instrument to which this section
applies; or

(b) having credited a customer's account with the amount of such an
instrument, receives payment thereof for himself; and the customer has no
title, or a defective title, to the instrument, the banker does not incur any
liability to the true owner of the instrument by reason only of having
received payment thereof.

(2) This section applies to the following instruments, namely:

(a) cheques;

(b) any document issued by a customer of a banker which, though not a bill of
exchange, is intended to enable a person to obtain payment from that
banker of the sum mentioned in the document;

(c) any draft payable on demand drawn by a banker upon himself, whether
payable at the head office or some other office of his bank.

(3) A banker is not to be treated for the purposes of this section as having been
negligent by reason only of his failure to concern himself with absence of, or irregularity in,
endorsement of an instrument.

(As amended by G.N. No. 441 of 1963)

6. The provisions of the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, of the United Kingdom,
relating to crossed cheques shall, in so far as they are in force in the Republic, have effect
in relation to instruments, other than cheques, to which section five of this Act applies as
they have effect in relation to cheques.

(As amended by G.N. No. 441 of 1963)

Application of certain
provisions of Bills of
Exchange Act, 1882,
to instruments not
being bills of exchange

7. If the Government has an account with a banker, the Government shall, for the
purposes of this Act and the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, of the United Kingdom, in so far
as it is in force in the Republic, be regarded as a customer of that banker.

(S.I. No. 159 of 1965)

Government to be
regarded as a
customer of banker

8. (1) The provisions of sections two to seven shall be construed as one with the
Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, of the United Kingdom, in so far as it is in force in the
Republic.

Construction, saving
and non-application of
British Acts

(2) The provisions of this Act do not make negotiable any instrument which, apart
from them, is not negotiable in terms of the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, of the United
Kingdom, in so far as it is in force in the Republic.

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(3) It is hereby declared that the provisions of the British Acts specified in the
Schedule shall not on or after the commencement of this Act have effect in the Republic.

(As amended by G.I. No. 441 of 1963 and S.I. No. 159 of 1965)

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SCHEDULE

(Section 8)

PROVISIONS OF BRITISH ACTS NOT APPLYING IN THE REPUBLIC

The Bills of Exchange Act, 1882 Section 82

The Revenue Act, 1883 Section 17

The Bills of Exchange (Crossed Cheques) Act, 1906 The whole Act

The Bills of Exchange Act (1882) Amendment Act, 1932 The whole Act

(As amended by G.N. No. 441 of 1963
and S.I. No. 159 of 1965)