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Conn. Gen. Stat. § 42a-3-404

This is the official text of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 42a-3-404, part of Connecticut’s Gen. Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of Connecticut, published by the state as "Gen. Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Sec. 42a-3-404. Impostors. Fictitious payees.

Official statutory text

(b) If (i) a person whose intent determines to whom an instrument is payable, as provided in subsection (a) or (b) of section 42a-3-110 , does not intend the person identified as payee to have any interest in the instrument, or (ii) the person identified as payee of an instrument is a fictitious person, the following rules apply until the instrument is negotiated by special endorsement:

(1) Any person in possession of the instrument is its holder.

(2) An endorsement by any person in the name of the payee stated in the instrument is effective as the endorsement of the payee in favor of a person who, in good faith, pays the instrument or takes it for value or for collection.

(c) Under subsection (a) or (b), an endorsement is made in the name of a payee if (i) it is made in a name substantially similar to that of the payee or (ii) the instrument, whether or not endorsed, is deposited in a depositary bank to an account in a name substantially similar to that of the payee.

(d) With respect to an instrument to which subsection (a) or (b) applies, if a person paying the instrument or taking it for value or for collection fails to exercise ordinary care in paying or taking the instrument and that failure substantially contributes to loss resulting from payment of the instrument, the person bearing the loss may recover from the person failing to exercise ordinary care to the extent the failure to exercise ordinary care contributed to the loss.

See Sec. 42a-3-403(a) for successor provisions to Sec. 42a-3-404, revised to 1991, re unauthorized signatures.

Cited. 171 C. 63.

Cited. 34 CS 606.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.