DEBT

A sum of money due by certain and expre agreement; as by bond for a determinate sum, a bill or note, a special bargain, or a rent reserved on a lease, where the amount is fixed and specific, and does not depend upon any• subsequent valuation to settle it. 3.Bl. Comm. 154; Camden v. Allen, 26 N. J. Law, 398; Appeal of City ot Erie, 91 Pa. 398; Dickey v. Leonard, 77 Ga. 151; Hagar v. Reclamation Dist., 111 U. S. 701, 4 Sup. Ct. 663, 28 L. IDd. 569; Appeal Tax Court v. Rice, 50 Md. 302. A debt is a sum of money due by contract. It ls most frequently due 1by a certain and expre agreement, which fixes the amount, independent of extrinsic circumstances. But it is not e ential that the contract should be expre , or that it should· fix the precise amount to be paid. U. S. v. Colt, 1 Pet. O. C. 145, Fed. Oas. No. 14,839. Standing alone, the word "debt" is as applicable to a sum of money which has been promised at a future day, as to a sum of money now due and payable. To distinguish between the two, it may be said of the former that it is a debt owing, and of the latter that it is a debt due. Whether a claim or demand is a debt or not is in no respect determined by a reference to the time of payment. A sum of money which is certainly and in all events payable is a debt, without regard to the fact whether it be pay• able now or at a future time. A sum payable upon a contingency, however, is not a debt, or does not become a debt until the contingency has happened. People v. Arguello, 37 Cal. 624. The word "debt" is of large import, including not' only debts of record, or judgments, and debts b;y specialty, but also obligations arising under simple contract, to a.very wide extent; and in its popular sense includes all that is due to a man under any·form of obligation or promise. Gray v. Bennett, 3 Mete. (Ma .) 522, 526. · '"Debt" has been differently defined, owing tG. the different subject-matter of, the statutes in which it bas been,used. Ordinarily, it import. [s. 340]