Pay

Pay in United Kingdom

Meaning of Pay

The following is an old definition of Pay [1]: V. To discharge an obligation by a performance according to its terms or requirements, whether the obligation be for money, merchandise, or services. To deliver to a creditor the value of a debt, in either money or goods, to his acceptance, by which the debt is discharged. n. Money, other property, or services, accepted in discharge of an obligation: as, an amount given to a person in the military service, in consideration of personal service. See Fix, 3. Payable. Dischargeable by delivery of an equivalent in value, usually in money; also, due in present time, matured. See Due. Payee. He to whom payment has been or is to be made. Payer. He who makes or ought to make payment. Payor is rare. Payee refers, in particular, to the person in whose favor a bill of exchange, check, or draft is drawn. Repay. May be synonymous with ” restore.” Unpaid. Is more commonly applied to a debt due than to a debt undue. Payment. 1. Delivery by a debtor to his creditor of the amount due. Opposed, non- payment. That is payment which the parties contract shall be accepted as payment. It may be made in something else than money. Originally, the performance of a promise to pay money, at the time and in the manner required by the terms of the contract; but has been extended to include the delivery of money in satisfaction of a debt after default made in paying according to the contract. If a commodity, like wood, is accepted, upon a note for money, in pursuance of a subsequent agreement, the transaction constitutes an ” accord and satisfaction.” Implies a voluntar.y act by the debtor looking to the satisfaction, in whole or in part, of the demand.0 2. As a plea, money or its equivalent in value. In Pennsylvania, the courts of law, from a time antedating 1770, have exercised chancery powers upon a plea of ” payment, with leave, etc.” This plea, after notice of the special matter proposed to be offered by way of defense, enables the defendant to give evi- dence of anything which will prove that in equity and good conscience the plaintiff is not entitled to recover. The notice is considered as, in effect, a bill in equity; and the plea and the notice operate substantially as a bill of injunction. The defendant’s equity is administered through the medium ol a jury. Involuntary or compulsory payment, A payment made under compulsion, coercion, or duress. Voluntary payment. A payment made from choice. A voluntary payment is made by the debtor on his own motion, without compulsory process. A payment made upon execution is not, therefore, a voluntary payment. The coercion or duress which will render a payment involuntary must in general consist of some actual or threatened exercise of power possessed, or believed to be possessed, by the person exacting or receiving the payment, over the person or property of another, from which the latter has no other means of immediate relief, than by making payment. An action does not lie to recover money claimed without right, if the payment was made voluntarily, and with full knowledge of the facts upon which the claim was predicated. It is not enough that the payment was made under protest. To authorize a recovi ery, the payment must have been compulsory, that is, made under coercion, actual or legal. A payment made to prevent a seizure of property which can only take place by legal proceeding, in which the defendant may defend, is voluntary. Where a party pays an illegal demand with knowledge of the facts which render it illegal, without immediate and urgent necessity therefor, and not to release from detention nor to prevent an immediate seizure of his person or property, such payment must be deemed voluntary, and cannot be recovered. Filing a written protest cannot make a payment involuntary. That is a correct statement of the rule at common law. Cases may be found in which the language of the court, separated from the facts, would seem to imply that a protest alone was sufficient to show that the payment was not voluntary; but on examination it will be found that the protest was used to give effect to other attending circumstances. It suffices if the payment, caused on the one part by an illegal demand, is made on the other part reluctantly, and in consequence of that illegality, and without the person being able to regain possession of his property except by submitting to the payment. See further Duress; Extortion; Protest; Revenue; Tax. Non-payment. See Protest. Part payment. The part payment of a debt which will take a case out of the statute of limitations means the payment of a smaller sum on account of a larger sum due. Payment of part of an outlawed debt implies an admission that the balance is still due and a promise to pay it. The act of payment on account takes the case out of the statute. The principle is that the payer intends to acknowledge the greater debt to be still due. Oral agreements are competent to prove ihat a payment of money, the delivery of a note, the settlement of accounts, or the assuming of an obligation of a pecuniary nature, are, as between the parties, payments on account or in reduction of a note or other debt within the meaning of the statute. Nothing can justly be considered as payment in fact but that which is in truth such, unless something else is expressly agreed to be received in its place. In ordinary transactions, a check on a bank, payable on demand, is payment. But a note of the debtor, or of a third party, is not a payment of a precedent debt, unless specially agreed to. By the general commercial law, a promissory note does not extingjuish the debt for which it is given, unless that be the express agreement; it merely extends the period for payment of the debt. Acceptance of the note is considered as accompanied with the condition of its payment. Demand of payment of commercial paper must be made on the maker or acceptor personally at his place of business or dwelling. Neither bankruptcy nor death will excuse a neglect. The holder is the proper person to make the demand, but the law makes a notary public his agent. What the notary does must appear distinctly in his protest. See Application; Assumpsit; Debt; Defer; Demand; Grace; Negotiable; Place; Reimburse; Tender, 1, Legal. Payment into court. When the defendant in an action for a certain sum of money admits that a part of the sum is due, he may plead “payment of money into court,” thereby stating that he brings a sum into court ready to be paid the plaintiff who has no claim to a larger amount. The plea is accompanied by actual payment of the admitted sum to the proper officer of the court, for the plaintiff. Should the plaintiff not accept the same, but proceed with the action and fail to prove that a larger sum is due, he pays the costs accruing since the tender was perfected. When a debtor, before suit is brought, tenders a certain sum in lawful tender, absolutely and without condition, to his creditor, which sum is refused, after suit brought he will be relieved from paying interest from the date of the tender, and from paying costs, if the plaintiff recovers no more than the sum tendered. But, if the tender be made pending the suit, it cannot avail, unless the defendant follows it up with an offer to pay the money into court, or submit to o, judgment for the admitted sum. A species of confession of action; and necessary, for the most part, upon pleading a tender,- is itself a kind of tender. The accrued costs are also to be paid into court. All may be done by a motion. Admits a special contract, sued on. Beyond the sum brought in, is no acknowledgment. Does not waive the benefit of a defense, though that be to the whole claim. After non-acceptance, the case goes on as if no money had been proffered.

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Notes and References

  1. Concept of Pay provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence

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