FUTURE DEBT is a debt wherein the obligation to pay and the time for payment is fixed and certain, but the day for performance has not arrived. Of such a debt, it was mid in the civil law dies cedit etsi nondum, renerit; and it was distinguished from a con tingent debt, i.e., a debt payable on the performance of a condition which was uncer tain, in which it was said dies nee cedit nee unit. Thus, an obligation to pay six months hence is a future debt; an obligation to pay " if my ship returns from Spain," is con tingent. In tile event of the death.or bankruptcy of a person having large commercial transactions, it is often of great importance that the right of the holders of such securi ties should be accurately fixed. In Rome, on the death or bankruptcy of a citizen. creditor holding a claim for a F. D. was entitled to payment, deducting a percentage proportionate to the date. at which his.debtwas payablet''brtta contingent creditor only waived a security for payment in case his debt should bedonie paYabld. This general principle has been introduced into the legal systems of modern states. In Holland and in France, the rights of creditors having claims not immediately payable are based upon the rule of the civil law. In England, a F. D., in order to found a valid claim, must be in writing, but it may be constituted by bond, bill, or note or other security. By com mon law, such a claim could not be enforced until the actual time for payment has arrived; and formerly, in case of bankruptcy, a creditor on a debt of this kind was not allowed to insist in his claim. At the same time the bankrupt's discharge was held not to release him from a debt which had not been admitted to claim in the process; and hence debtors were sometimes incarcerated for years On debts which they were wholly unable to discharge. See IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. This state of things was product ive of manifest injustice on both debtor and creditor; on the latter, by excluding him from insisting in his claim at a time when he might have obtained a partial payment; on the former by punishing him for his default when he was deprived of the means of making any return. The subject was frequently discussed .in parliament before a
remedy was applied. At last, by 6 Geo. IV. c. 16, s. 51, it was enacted that in cases of bankruptcy, where a debt was not immediately payable, the creditor should be entitled to prove his debt, and receive a dividend; deducting interest at 5 per cent for the period which was to elapse before the date when the debt was payable in due course. By s. 56, debts payable on a contingency might be valued, and a dividend paid 'on the esti mated value. Similar provisions were inserted in the 12 and 13 Vict. c. 196, ss. 172 and 177. By the last bankruptcy act, 24 and 25 Vict. c. 134, s. 153, it is enacted that a per son having a claim for unliquidated damages, Which are of the nature of a F. D., may have his claim assessed by a jury either in the court of equity, or before a common-law judge, or, in case of agreement between the parties, by the court without a jury.
By the common law of Scotland, the rule of the civil law, as to the rights of eredi. tors having a future claim, has always been recognized. In the event of bankruptcy, creditors in both future and contingent debts are allowed to rank. but the latter only to the extent of receiving a security until the condition is purified. But by 19 and 20 Viet. c. 79, s. 53, which is BOW the ruling statute as to bankruptcy in Scotland, contin gent creditors may have their• debts valued, and may vote in the sequestration (q.v.), and &ay.; dividends proportionate to the valuation. • It is also enacted, s. 14, ttiat all creditors whose debts are not contingent may concur in the petition for bankruptcy. But the Scotch law affords to future debtors a further privilege, unknown to the system of the sister-country—viz., that of arrestment in security, whereby a creditor having a future claim is enabled, in case his debtor seem to be willfully diminishing his means of disehargingliis debt, to attach the goods of the debtor as a security for the payment of his debt. See ARRESTMENT.