comm. law. This term is applied among merchants to signify an agreement made between a debtor and his creditors, by which the latter, in order to enable the former, embarrassed in his circumstances, to retrieve his standing, agree to wait for a definite length of time after their several claims should become due and payable, before they will demand payment. 2. Among the French, … [Read more...]

civil law. The act by which a creditor accepts a new debtor, who becomes bound instead of the old, the latter being released. It is a species of novation. … [Read more...]

In old English law. Extenders or appraisers. The name of certain officers appointed to appraise and divide or apportion lands. It was their duty to make a survey, schedule, or inventory of the lands, to lay them out under certain heads, and then to ascertain the value of each, as preparatory to the division or partition. Bract fols. 72b, 75; Britt c 71. … [Read more...]

In the civil law. A person who assumes the debt of another, and becomes solely liable for it by a stipulation with the creditor. He differs from a surety, inasmuch as this contract is one of novation, while a surety is jointly liable with his principal. Mackeld. Rom. Law, … [Read more...]

In English practice. A writ of execution issuing from the exchequer upon a debt due the crown, or upon a debt due a private person, if upon recognizance or statute merchant or staple, by which the sheriff is directed to appraise the debtor's lands, and, instead of selling them, to set them off to the creditor for a term during which the rental will satisfy the judgment. Hackett … [Read more...]