Negotiable

In Mercantile Law. A term applied to a contract, the right of action on which is capable of being transferred by indorsement (of which delivery is an essential part), in case the undertaking is to A or his order, A or his agent, and the like, or by delivery alone, in case the undertaking is to A or hearer, — the assignee in either case having a right to sue in his own name. That which is capable of being transferred, by assignment, indorsement, or by delivery.

Vietor v. Johnson, 148 l’a. 583, 24 Atl. 173.

Complete negotiability involves the right of the assignee to sue in his own name and take free of equities against the assignor; L. It. 8 Q. B. 874. At common law, choses in action were not assignable; but exceptions to this rule have grown up by mercantile usage as to some classes of simple contracts, and others have been introduced by statute, so that now bills of exchange, promissory notes, and bank-notes, to order or bearer, are universally negotiable; and notes not to order action in the name of the assignor; and in some states, by statute, bonds and other specialties are assignable by indorsement.

See Assignment.