Section 10-918 - Suits on negotiable instruments. - Maryland Statutes

§ 10-918. Suits on negotiable instruments.
 

(a)  Effect of inability to produce negotiable instrument.- Subject to subsections (b) and (c) of this section, a party who is otherwise entitled to sue and recover upon or under any promissory note, bill of exchange, bill of lading, warehouse or storage receipt, or other negotiable instrument, is not precluded from recovering by reason of the party's inability to produce the instrument in evidence at the trial or surrender the instrument to the defendant. 

(b)  Accounting for instrument required.- The absence of an instrument described in subsection (a) of this section must be sufficiently accounted for under the rules of evidence to allow the introduction of secondary proof of the contents of the instrument at the trial. 

(c)  Bond required.-  

(1) A judgment may not be entered for the plaintiff in a suit described in subsection (a) of this section until a sufficient bond has been filed in the suit by the plaintiff. 

(2) The bond shall provide for the penalty and surety approved by the court, and conditioned on holding the defendant harmless on satisfaction of the judgment by the defendant as if the missing instrument were then produced and surrendered to the defendant. 
 

[An. Code 1957, art. 75, § 4; 1997, ch. 31, § 1.]