Definition
A Latin maxim meaning "to be paid in the future." The phrase describes an obligation, debt, or duty of payment that is deferred — that is, where the obligation exists now but performance or payment is not due until a future date or event. It is the counterpart to obligations that are immediately due and enforceable. Courts and legal writers have used the phrase to distinguish present, matured obligations from those that are contingent on the passage of time or the arrival of a condition.
Common Confusion
SOLVENDUM IN FUTURO is sometimes loosely equated with a contingent obligation, but the distinction matters: a solvendum in futuro obligation is already fixed in its existence — only the time of payment is deferred. A contingent obligation, by contrast, may never arise at all. The phrase most precisely describes a debt certain in amount and obligor, where only performance is postponed.
Why It Matters in Research
This phrase appears primarily in older treatises, equity pleadings, and common law debt actions — particularly in discussions of when a cause of action accrues. Researchers working with pre-twentieth-century materials on contract enforcement, statutes of limitations, or succession will encounter it in arguments about whether a claim is ripe for suit. The phrase can signal a critical procedural question: if a debt is solvendum in futuro, the creditor may hold a right but not yet a remedy, affecting when limitations begin to run and whether the obligation can be set off against a present debt.
In equity, the concept appears in contexts involving annuities, remainders charged with payment, and estate distributions — situations where a legatee or beneficiary holds a vested right to future payment. Researchers tracing the history of anticipatory breach doctrine should note that the tension between present obligation and deferred performance sits at the heart of that development.
The phrase is rare in modern American case law and legal writing, having been largely displaced by plain English equivalents — "future payment obligation," "deferred debt," "not yet due and payable." When it surfaces in digitized corpus searches, it is almost always in nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century materials, ecclesiastical court records, and English common law sources. Do not expect it in statutes or modern pleadings.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's entry is minimal — "To be paid at a future time. English." — which is accurate but offers no analytical context. Bouvier's brevity here is characteristic of how the dictionary treats Latin maxims it regards as self-explanatory to trained practitioners of the era. What the entry does not supply is the doctrinal work the phrase actually did: namely, marking the boundary between a right that is vested and a remedy that is not yet available.
No entry appears in Black's standard editions or in Wharton's Law Lexicon under this precise phrase, though the underlying concept is addressed in those works under DEBT, OBLIGATION, and MATURITY. Researchers should treat the Bouvier entry as a pointer rather than a complete treatment and look to the treatise literature — particularly on pleading and on the law of obligations — for full doctrinal context.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase originates in English common law and civilian legal tradition. Its use in American sources largely tracks English equity practice. It carries no jurisdiction-specific statutory meaning and should be treated as a descriptive Latin phrase rather than a term of art with precise local definition.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia: OBLIGATION; CONTRACT; STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS