Due, Due-Bill

DUE - What ought to be paid; what may be demanded. It differs from owing in that, sometimes, what is owing is not due; e.g., a note, payable thirty days after date, is owing immediately after it is delivered to the payee, but it is not due until the thirty days have elapsed.

Bills of exchange and promissory notes, at one time, and perhaps in some places today, were not due until the end of the three days of grace, unless the last of these days happen to fall on a Sunday or other holiday, when it becomes due on the Saturday before, and not on the Monday following.

Due also signifies just or proper; e.g., a due presentment and demand of payment must be made.

DUE-BILL - An acknowledgment of a debt, in writing. This instrument differs from a promissory note in many particulars; e.g., it is not payable to order, nor is it assignable by mere endorsement.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.