OVERDUE¹. A bill, note, bond or other contract, for the payment of money at a particular day, when not paid upon the day, is overdue.

2. The indorsement of a note or bill overdue, is equivalent to drawing a new bill payable² at sight. 2 Conn. 419; 18 Pick. 260; 9 Alab. R. 153.

3. A note when passed or assigned when overdue, is subject to all the equities³ between the original contracting parties. 6 Conn. 5; 10 Conn. 30, 55; 3 Har. (N. J.) Rep. 222.

OVERPLUS. What is left beyond a certain amount; the residue⁴, the remainder of a thing. The same as Surplus. (q. v.)

2. The overplus may be certain or uncertain. It is certain, for example, when an estate is worth three thousand dollars, and the owner asserts it to be so in his will, and devises of the proceeds one thousand dollars to A, one thousand dollars to B, and the overplus to C, and in consequence of the deterioration⁵ of the estate, or from some other cause, it sells for less than three thousand dollars, each of the legatees A, B and C shall take one third: the overplus is uncertain where, for example, a testator does not know the value of his estate, and gives various legacies⁶ and the overplus to another legatee; the latter will be entitled only to what may be left. 18 Ves. 466. See Residue; Surplus.

TO OVERRULE. To annul⁷, to make void. This word is frequently used to signify that a case has been decided⁸ directly opposite to a former case; when this takes place, the first decided case is said to be overruled as a precedent⁹, and cannot any longer be considered as of binding¹⁰ authority.

2. Mr. Greenleaf has made a very valuable collection of overruled cases, of great service to the practitioner¹¹.

3. The term overrule also signifies that a majority of the judges have decided against the opinion of the minority, in which case the latter are said to be overruled.

OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. Persons appointed or elected to take care of the poor with moneys furnished to them by the public authority.

2. The duties of these officers are regulated by local statutes¹². In general the overseers are bound to perform those duties, and the neglect of them will subject them to an indictment¹³. Vide 1 Bl. Com. 360; 16 Vin. Ab. 150; 1 Mass. 459; 3 Mass. 436; 1 Penning. R. 6, 136; Com. Dig. Justices of the Peace, B. 63, 64, 65.