Statute of Limitations, 1957

Effect of payment on persons other than the maker or recipient.

68.—(1) A payment in respect of a mortgage debt by the mortgagor or any person in possession of the mortgaged property shall, so far as any right of the mortgagee to recover the property is concerned, bind all persons in possession of the mortgaged property during the ensuing period of limitation.

(2) Where—

(a) two or more mortgagees of land are by virtue of the mortgage in possession of the land, and

(b) one only of the mortgagees (in this subsection referred to as the recipient) receives any payment in respect of the principal or interest of the mortgage debt,

the following provisions shall have effect:—

(i) the payment shall bind only the recipient and his successors and shall not bind any other mortgagee or his successors;

(ii) if the recipient is entitled to a part of the mortgaged land and not to any ascertained part of the mortgaged debt, the mortgagor shall be entitled to redeem that part of the land on payment, with interest, of the part of the mortgage debt which, immediately before the recipient received the payment, referred to in paragraph (b) of this subsection, bore the same proportion to the whole of the debt as the value of that part of the land bears to the value of the whole of the land, less the amount of the payment.

(3) Where there are two or more mortgagors of land, and the mortgagee, being in possession of the land, is paid any sum in respect of the principal or interest of the mortgage debt by one of the mortgagors, the payment shall be deemed to have been made by all the mortgagors.

(4) (a) A payment made in respect of any debt shall, subject to paragraph (b) of this subsection, bind all persons liable in respect thereof.

(b) A payment in respect of a statute-barred debt shall not bind—

(i) any person other than the person making the payment and his successors, or

(ii) any successor on whom the liability devolves on the determination of a preceding estate or interest in property under a settlement taking effect before the date of payment.

(5) A payment by one of several personal representatives in respect of any claim to the personal estate of a deceased person shall bind the estate of the deceased person.