A check or other draft does not of itself operate as an assignment of funds in the hands of the drawee available for its payment, and the drawee is not liable on the instrument until the drawee accepts it.  

Oklahoma Code Comment

This Section restates pre-revision subsection 3-409(1), and is in accord with existing Oklahoma law. See Cirar v. Bank of Hartshome, 567 P.2d 96, 98 (Okla. 1977); Port City State Bank v. American Nat'l Bank, Lawton, Okla., 486 F.2d 196, 201 (lOth Cir. 1973). Note, however, that additional facts can result in an assignment or produce a like result. Thus, for example, if a contract exists between the bank and the depositor pursuant to which the bank agrees to pay checks upon presentment if certain conditions are met, then presentment in accordance with those conditions will produce the same result as an assignment of the customer's funds in the bank's hands. Mid-Continent Casualty Co. v. Jenkins, 431 P.2d 349 (Okla. 1967). Similarly, a money order or properly negotiated traveler's check generally should constitute an assignment of funds in the drawee's possession pursuant to the agreement between the purchaser and the drawee. See Walters Nat'l Bank v. Bantock, 41 Okla. 153, 137 P. 717 (1913) (finding equitable assignment).

This Section is in agreement with the result in Barnhill v. Johnson, 112 S.Ct. 1386 (1992), which held that for purposes of a preferential transfer under Bankruptcy Code Section 547(b), a transfer made by check is deemed to occur on the date the check is honored by the drawer's bank, rather than the date it comes into the payee's hands.

Note that the provisions of pre-revision Section 3-408 are now incorporated in Section 3-303

Laws 1961, SB 36, p. 111, § 3-408; Amended by Laws 1991, SB 25, c. 117, § 71, eff. January 1, 1992.