Article 544 of Commercial Code

1 - The drawee may not pay a generally crossed cheque except to one of its customers or to a bank. 2 - The drawee may not pay a specially crossed cheque except to the bank whose name is written between the two lines or to a customer of that bank if the latter is the drawee. Nevertheless, the bank whose name is written between the two lines may entrust another bank with collecting the value of the cheque. 3 - A bank may not acquire a crossed cheque except from one of its customers or from another bank, nor collect its value for the account of persons other than those mentioned. 4 - If a cheque bears several special crossings, the drawee may not pay it unless it bears two crossings and one of them is for collecting its value through a clearing house. 5 - If the drawee fails to observe the preceding provisions, it shall be liable to compensate the damage up to an amount not exceeding the amount of the cheque. Law Index 1336 Home Page Commercial Law Decree-Law No. 68 of 1980 Promulgating the Commercial Law 6 - The term (customer) in this Article means every person who has an account with the drawee and has obtained a cheque book from it or was entitled to obtain that book.