The alteration of a receipt shall not excuse the warehouseman who issued it from any liability if such alteration was:
(a) Immaterial;
(b) authorized, or
(c) made without fraudulent intent.
If the alteration was authorized, the warehouseman shall be liable according to the terms of the receipt as altered. If the alteration was unauthorized, but made without fraudulent intent, the warehouseman shall be liable according to the terms of the receipt, as they were before alteration.
Material and fraudulent alteration of a receipt shall not excuse the warehouseman who issued it from liability to deliver according to the terms of the receipt as originally issued, the goods for which it was issued, but shall excuse him from any other liability to the person who made the alteration and to any person who took with notice of the alteration. Any purchaser of the receipt for value without notice of the alteration shall acquire the same rights against the warehouseman which such purchaser would have acquired if the receipt had not been altered at the time of the purchase.
History —Feb. 21, 1918, No. 9, p. 22, § 13.