At English common law debts and other choses in action were not assignable (see CHOSE), but by the Judicature Act 1873 any absolute assignment of any debt or other legal chose in action, of which express notice in writing is given to the debtor, trustee or other person from whom the assignor would have been entitled to receive or claim such debt, is effectual in law. Debts do not, as a general rule, carry interest, but such an obligation may arise either by agreement or by mercantile usage or by statute. The discharge of a debt may take place either by payment of the amount due, by accord and satisfaction, i.e. acceptance of something else in discharge of the liability, by set-off (q.v.), by release or under the law of bankruptcy (q.v.). It is the duty of a debtor to pay a debt without waiting for any demand, and, unless there is a place fixed on either by custom or agreement, he must seek out his creditor for the purpose of paying him unless he is "beyond the seas." Payment by a third person to the creditor is no discharge of a debt, as a general rule, unless the debtor subsequently ratifies the payment. When a debtor tenders the amount due to his creditor and the creditor refuses to accept, the debt is not discharged, but if the debtor is subsequently sued for the debt and continues willing and ready to pay, and pays the amount tendered into court, he can recover his costs in the action. A creditor is not bound to give change to the debtor, whose duty it is to make tender in lawful money the whole amount due, or more, without asking for change. (See PAYMENT.) A debtor takes the risk if he makes payment through the post, unless the creditor has requested or authorized that mode of payment. The payment of a debt is sometimes secured by one person, called a surety, who makes himself collaterally liable for the debt of the principal. (See GUARANTEE.) The ordinary method of enforcing a debt is by action. Where the debt does not exceed £100 the simplest procedure for its recovery is that of the county court, but if the debt exceeds £100 the creditor must proceed in the high court, unless the cause of action has arisen within the jurisdiction of certain inferior courts, such as the mayor's court of London, the Liverpool court of passage, &c. When judgment has been obtained it may be enforced either by process (under certain conditions) against the person of the debtor, by an execution against the debtor's property, or, with the assistance of the court, by attaching any debt owed to the debtor by a third person. Where a debtor has committed any act of bankruptcy a creditor or creditors whose aggregate claims are not less than £50 may proceed against him in bankruptcy (q.v.). Where the debtor is a company or corporation registered under the companies acts, the creditor may petition to have it wound up. (See COMPANY.)