19 Ways to Discharge a Debt/Negotiable Instrument.
19 ways to discharge a debt
DISCHARGE OF A CONTRACT. The act of making a contract or agreement null.
Bouvier’s 1856 Law
Contracts may be discharged by,
1. Payment.
2. Accord and satisfaction. 8 Com. Dig. 917; 1 Nels. Abr. 18; 1 Lilly’s Reg. 10, 16; Hall’s Dig. 7 1 Poth. Ob. 345.
3. Release. 8 Com. Dig. 906; 3 Nels. Ab. 69; 18 Vin. Ab. 294; 1 Vin. Abr. 192; 2 Saund. 48, a; Gow. on Partn. 225, 230; 15 Serg. & Rawle, 441; 1 Poth Ob. 897.
4. Set off. 8 Vin. Ab. 556, Discount; Hall’s Dig. 226, 496; 7 Com. Dig. 335, Pleader, 2 G 17; 1 Poth. Ob. 408.
5. The rescission of the contracts. 1 Com. Dig. 289, note x; 8 Com. Dig. 349; Chit. on Contr. 276.
6. Extinguishment. 7 Vin: Abr. 367; 14 Serg. & Rawle, 209, 290; 8 Com. Dig. 394; 2 Nels. Abr. 818; 18 Vin. Abr. 493 to 515; 11 Vin. Abr. 461.
7. Confusion, where the duty to pay and the right to receive unite in the same person. 8 Serg. & Rawle, 24-30 1 Poth. 425.
8. Extinction, or the loss of the subject matter of the contract. Bac. Abr. 48 8 Com. Dig. *349; 1 Poth. Ob. 429.
9. Defeasance. 2 Saund. 47, n. note 1.
10. The inability of one of the parties to fulfil his part. Hall’s Dig. 40.
11. The death of the contractor, as where he undertook to teach an apprentice.
12. Bankruptcy.
13. By the act of limitations.
14. By lapse of time. Angell on Adv. Enjoym. passim; 15 Vin. Abr. 52, 99; 2 Saund. 63, n. b; Id. 66, n. 8; Id. 67, n. 10; Gow on Partn. 235; 1, Poth. 443, 449.
15. By neglecting to give notice to the, person charged. Chit. on Bills, 245.
16. By releasing one of two partners. See Receipt.
17. By neglecting to sue the principal at the request of the surety, the latter is discharged. 8 Serg. &
Rawle, 110.
18. By the discharge of a defendant, who has been arrested under a capias ad satisfaciendum. 8 Cowen, R. 171.
19. By a certificate and discharge under the bankrupt laws. Act of August, 1841.
BLACK’S LAW 4th Edition
In the Law of Contracts
To cancel or unloose the obligation of a contract ; to make an agreement or contract null and inoperative. As a noun, the word means the act or instrument by which the binding force of a contract is terminated, irrespective of whether the contract is carried out to the full extent contemplated (in which case the discharge is the result of performance) or is broken off before complete execution. Rivers v. Blom, 163 Mo. 442, 63 S.W. 812.
Discharge is a generic term ; its principal species are rescission, release, accord and satisfaction, performance, judgment, composition, bankruptcy, merger (q. ‘V.).Leak e, Cont. 413.
As applied to demands, claims, rights of action, etc., to discharge the debt or claim is to extinguish it, to annul its obligatory force, to satisfy it. And here also the term is generic; thus a debt, a mortgage, a legacy, may be discharged by payment or performance, or by any act short of that, lawful in itself, which the creditor accepts as sufficient. Blackwood v. Brown,
29 Mich. 484; Rangely v. Spring;- 28 Me. 151. To discharge a person is to liberate him from the binding force of an obligation, debt, or claim. There is a distinction between a “debt discharged” and
a “debt paid. “
When discharged the debt still exists though divested of its character as a legal obligation during the operation of the discharge. Something of the original vitality of the debt continues to exist which may be transferred, even though the transferee takes it subject to its disability incident to the discharge.
The fact that it carries something which may be a consideration for a new promise to pay, so as to make an otherwise worthless promise a legal obligation, makes it the subject of transfer by assignment. Stanek v. White, 172 Minn. 390, 215 N.W. 784.
Discharge by operation of law is where the discharge takes place, whether it was Intended by the parties or not ; thus, if a creditor appoints his debtor his executor, the debt is discharged by operation of law, because the executor cannot have an action against himself. Co. Litt.�64b� note 1; Williams, Ex’rs, l216 ; Chit.Cont. 714.
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