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Title 40 — Public Buildings, Property, and Works

Chapter 173 — Government Losses in Shipment

§ 17306. Agreements of indemnity

Statutory text

(a)

Definition.—

In this section, the term “Federal Government” includes wholly owned Government corporations, and officers and employees of the Government or its executive departments, independent establishments, and agencies while acting in their official capacity.

(b)

Authority To Make Agreement.—

The Secretary of the Treasury may make and deliver, on behalf of the Federal Government, a binding agreement of indemnity the Secretary considers necessary and proper to enable the Government to obtain the replacement of any instrument or document—

(1)

received by the Government or an agent of the Government in the agent’s official capacity; and

(2)

which, after having been received, is lost, destroyed, or so mutilated as to impair its value.

(c)

When Federal Government Not Obligated.—

The Government is not obligated under an agreement of indemnity if the obligee named in the agreement makes a payment or delivery not required by law on the original of the instrument or document covered by the agreement.

(d)

Use of Fund for the Payment of Government Losses in Shipment.—

The fund described in section 17303 of this title is available to pay any obligation arising out of an agreement the Secretary makes under this section.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Pub. L. 107–217 · 116 Stat. 1062

    Enacted · 40 U.S.C. § 17306

    (Pub. L. 107–217, Aug. 21, 2002, 116 Stat. 1282.)

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    (Pub. L. 107–217, Aug. 21, 2002, 116 Stat. 1282.)

0 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision · 1 partial

Notes

historicalAndRevision
Historical and Revision Notes
RevisedSectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large)
17306(a)40:729(a) (last sentence).July 8, 1937, ch. 444, § 7(a) (last sentence), 50 Stat. 480; Aug. 10, 1939, ch. 665, § 3, 53 Stat. 1359.
17306(b)40:725 (1st sentence words before proviso).July 8, 1937, ch. 444, § 3b, as added Aug. 10, 1939, ch. 665, § 2, 53 Stat. 1359.
17306(c)40:725 (1st sentence proviso).
17306(d)40:725 (last sentence).

Credits

(Pub. L. 107–217, , 116 Stat. 1282.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc40.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-09-16

USLM identifier /us/usc/t40/s17306