Supreme Court held that a partial payment offsetting debt constitutes a payment, not a discharge, under contract terms.

The Supreme Court ruled that a partial payment made by a creditor to a debtor constitutes a valid payment rather than a discharge of debt. The parties disputed whether the contractual offsetting of the purchase price against the outstanding debt should be treated as a payment or a full discharge. The court decided that the specific contractual arrangement and the nature of the transaction required the offset to be recognized as a partial payment.