The act or agreement of assuming or taking upon one’s self; the undertaking or adoption of a debt or obligation primarily resting upon another, as where the purchaser of real estate “assumes” a mortgage resting upon it in which case he adopts the mortgage debt as his own and becomes personally liable for its payment. Eggleston v. Morrison, 84 111. App. 631; Locke v. Homer, 131 Mass. 93, 41 Am. Rep. 199; Springer v. De Wolf, 194 111. 218, 62 N. E. 542, 56 L. R. A. 465, 88 Am. St Rep. 155; Lenz v. Railroad Co., Ill Wis. 198, 86 N. W. 607. The difference between the purchaser of land assuming a mortgage on it and simply buying subject to the mortgage, is that in the former case he makes himself personally liable for the payment of the mortgage debt, while in the lat ter case he does not. Hancock v. Fleming, 103 Ind. 533, 3 N. E. 254; Braman v. Dowse, 12 Cush. (Mass.) 227. Where one “assumes” a lease, he takes to himself the obligations, contracts, agreements, and benefits to which the other contracting party was entitled under the terms of the lease. Cincinnati, etc., R. Co. v. Indiana, etc., R. Co., 44 Ohio St. 287, 314, 7 N. EX 152.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
