Melroy v. Kemmerer

Citations

• 218 Pa. 381
• 67 A. 699
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 530

Syllabus

<p>Accord and satisfaction — Payment—Consideration—Bankruptcy.</p> <p>Where a debtor in failing circumstances and contemplating bankruptcy offers his creditor thirty per cent, of the debt as a settlement in full, and the creditor dissuades him from going into bankruptcy, accepts his alternative offer, receives the money, and closes the account, the transaction is an accord and satisfaction, and the creditor cannot thereafter recover the balance.</p> <p>In such a case the accord is good because by it the creditor gets a sum certain instead of the chances of an uncertain dividend in bankruptcy; while on the other hand the debtor accepts the responsibility of paying a sum certain whether his assets are sufficient or not, and gives up his right to a release of his future assets, and to a discharge from his whole debt without regard to the sufficiency of his present assets.</p>