Also known as: definite-time · definite times · fixed time · certain time
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A condition that an instrument must satisfy to be negotiable requiring payment on elapse of a definite period after sight or acceptance or at a fixed date or dates readily ascertainable when the instrument is issued.
Dominion Capital issues a promissory note to Darrell Duncan promising payment of $50,000. The note specifies that the sum is due exactly one year from the date of issuance. When the due date arrives without payment, Darrell Duncan presents the note for enforcement and treats it as negotiable because the payment obligation is fixed at a readily ascertainable moment.
Home Building & Loan Association holds a mortgage note from a borrower that requires monthly installments on the first day of each month for five years. The borrower defaults after the third year. The lender accelerates the remaining balance and sues, relying on the fixed repayment dates to establish the maturity of the obligation.
The Blaisdells executed a mortgage on their property in Minneapolis to the Home Building & Loan Association on August 1, 1928. The mortgage contained a valid power of sale by advertisement. After default, the mortgage was foreclosed and the property sold to the Association on May 2, 1932, for $3700.98. The period of redemption under the law then in effect was set to expire on May 2, 1933. On April 18, 1933, Minnesota enacted Chapter 339 of the Laws of 1933, known as the Mortgage Moratorium Law. The statute authorized district courts to extend the period of redemption from foreclosure sales for such additional time as the court deemed just and equitable, not beyond May 1, 1935, upon condition that the mortgagor pay a reasonable part of the income or rental value toward taxes, insurance, interest, and principal. The Blaisdells applied to the District Court of Hennepin County for an extension of the redemption period. The district court found that the reasonable rental value of the property was $40 per month and the present market value was $6000. It extended the redemption period to May 1, 1935, requiring the Blaisdells to pay $40 per month to the Association. The Supreme Court of Minnesota affirmed the order. The Home Building & Loan Association appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which reviewed the judgment sustaining the statute as applied to the preexisting mortgage.
View caseA tour manager contracts with a singer to provide stage services beginning on a date certain six weeks after signing. The manager repudiates the agreement before that date. The singer sues immediately for breach, treating the specified start date as the point at which performance becomes due under the agreement.
The plaintiff, a courier, and the defendant entered into an agreement on 12 April 1852. Under its terms, the plaintiff was to serve as the defendant's courier on a tour of the continent of Europe beginning 1 June 1852 for three months at a monthly salary of 10l. The plaintiff agreed to be ready to start on that date, and the defendant promised to employ him on those terms. On 11 May 1852 the defendant wrote to the plaintiff that he had changed his mind, declined the services, and refused any compensation. The plaintiff had remained ready and willing to perform from the time of the agreement. The action was commenced by writ dated 22 May 1852. Between the filing of the suit and 1 June the plaintiff secured employment with Lord Ashburton on terms equally good, though the new engagement was not to begin until 4 July. At the trial before Erle J. during the London sittings in Easter Term, the defendant's counsel contended that no breach could occur before 1 June. The judge left the remaining questions to the jury, which returned a verdict for the plaintiff, while reserving leave to enter a nonsuit on the timing objection. The defendant then obtained a rule nisi to enter a nonsuit or arrest the judgment. The principal question presented on the motion was whether a contract can be broken before the day fixed for performance arrives when one party has repudiated it in advance.
View caseAn instrument is payable at a definite time when it states payment on elapse of a definite period after sight or acceptance or at a fixed date or dates readily ascertainable at issuance.
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No. An instrument remains payable at a definite time even if it permits extension to a further definite time at the option of the maker or automatically upon a specified event.
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If an instrument payable at a fixed date is also payable on demand made before that date, it is payable on demand until the fixed date arrives and becomes payable at a definite time on the fixed date if no earlier demand occurs.
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An action to enforce a note payable at a definite time must be commenced within six years after the due date or dates stated in the note or after any accelerated due date.
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…however exigent the occasion might be. That, in principle, is precisely the case here. The contract is to repay a loan within a fixed time, with the express condition that upon failure the property given as security shall be sold, and that, in the absence of a timely redemption, title shall be vested absolutely in the…