DEBT, that which is due from one person to another; that which one per son is bound to pay or perform to an other; due; obligation; liability. That which any one is obliged to do or to suffer.
Debt in law is a species of contract whereby a chose in action, or right to a certain sum of money, is mutually ac quired and lost; usually divided into debts of record, debts by special contract, and debts by simple contract. A debt of record is a sum which spears to be due by the evidence of a court of record; such as debt of judgment or recogni zance. Debt by specialty is where a sum is acknowledged to be due, or becomes due, by instrument under seal; such as a covenant, bond, etc. Both these species of debts, being contracted by a man for himself and his heirs, attach on his lands and tenements, and bind them in the hands of his heir or devisee. Debt by simple contract is either by parol or by written obligation unsealed; within which class fall bills of exchange, and promissory notes. Debt is also a per sonal action of contract, in which the plaintiff seeks the recovery of a debt, i. e., a liquidated or certain sum of money alleged to be due to him.
In the United States originally im prisonment of debtors was adopted as a part of the common law, but at the pres ent time imprisonment for debt, except in case of fraud, or of an absconding debtor, does not legally exist in any of the States. Congress, empowered by the United States Constitution to make a uniform bankrupt law, exercised this power, and subsequently repealed the law of imprisonment; and now, by Re vised Statutes 990 and 991, no person can be imprisoned for debt by any pro cess issuing out of the courts of the United States, in any State where by the laws of the State imprisonment for debt has been abolished. Most of the States,
by constitutional provision, have pro hibited arrest or imprisonment for debt, while the other States, either by direct statutes prohibiting imprisonment for debt, or by poor debtors' laws, or by in solvent laws, secure the same result.
In all the States a just and legal debt may be enforced and put in position for collection through attachment of prop erty by means of a judgment issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. In all States, however, statute: specify a limitation, or definite term of years, for both debts and judgments, after which collection may not be enforced. The debt or judgment is then said to be "out lawed." Such statutes also define the legal rates of interest which may be required on debts, either with or without judg ment.
In general the law holds that a debt is an obligation based upon an agree ment, which, if not expressed in a con tract, verbal or otherwise, is definitely implied in a given transaction. This def inition does not apply to taxes, which are held to be imposts levied by authority apart from all agreement; nor yet to fines incurred for misdemeanors, vio lations of duty, etc. Thus, while real property may be sold for non-payment of taxes, it may be redeemed at any time subsequently by payment of the princi pal and interest on the taxes due. This constitutes the gravest objection to ac quiring a "tax title."