49 U.S.C. § 80106 — Transfer without negotiation

(a) Delivery and Agreement — The holder of a bill of lading may transfer it without negotiating it, just by delivering it along with an agreement to transfer title to the bill or to the goods it covers. Subject to that agreement, the person receiving the bill gets title to the goods as against the person who transferred it. (b) Compelling Indorsement — If a negotiable bill is transferred for value by delivery alone, without being negotiated, and the transferor's indorsement is needed to negotiate it further, the person receiving it can force the transferor to indorse the bill, unless the parties clearly intended otherwise. The negotiation takes effect once the indorsement is made. (c) Effect of Notification — (1) Once a transferee tells the carrier that a nonnegotiable bill has been transferred under subsection (a), the carrier owes that transferee directly whatever it owed the transferor right before the notice. But before the carrier gets notice, the transferee's title to the goods and right to the carrier's obligations can be defeated by (A) a creditor of the transferor garnishing, attaching, or executing on the goods, or (B) the transferor, or a buyer from the transferor, telling the carrier about a later sale of the goods. (2) A carrier only counts as notified under this subsection if (A) an officer or agent of the carrier whose authority covers acting on the notice has been told, and (B) that officer or agent has had reasonable time to pass the word on to whoever holds or controls the goods.