appropriation of payments

The general doctrine is, that the debtor has a right, if he pleases, to make the appropriation of payments; if he omits it, the creditor may make it; if both omit it, the law will apply the payments, according to its own notions of justice. It is certainly too late for either party to claim a right to make an appropriation, after the controversy has arisen, and a fortiori at the time of the trial.

This means the application of a payment to the discharge of a particular debt. Thus, if a creditor has two distinct debts due to him from his debtor, and the latter makes a general payment on account, without specifying at the time to which debt he intends the payment to apply, it is optional for the creditor to appropriate (apply) the payment to either of the two debts he pleases. Gwln v. McLean. 62 Miss. 121; Martin v. Draher, 5 Watte (Pa.) 544.

In English ecclesiastical law. The perpetual annexing of a benefice tb some spiritual corporation either sole or aggregate, being the patron of the living. 1 Bl. Comm. 384 ; 3 Steph. Comm. 70-75; 1 Crabb, Real Prop. p. 144, § 129. Where the annexation is to the use of a lay person, it is usually called an "impropriation." 1 Crabb, Real Prop, p. 145, § 130.