Opinion ID: 1162817
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the agreement waives statutory setoff

Text: The guaranty agreement specifically allows the Bank selective and successive enforcement of its rights; it provides that all the Bank's remedies are cumulative rather than alternative. [28] Clearly, none of the obligation requires that the Bank proceed first against either the property, the principal or any one of the five guarantors. The agreement contains the admonition that no action taken by the Bank may waive any of its other rights [29] and the promise that if the Bank forecloses any lien created by the loan documents, it may buy the secured property at public or private sale and credit the amount recovered (not the fair market value) against the loan. [30] This broad waiver disposes of the setoff issue and dispenses with the need to consider whether the anti-deficiency statute, 12 O.S. 1981 § 686, avails to protect the guarantors. [31] The protection of the Field Code provisions that regulate guaranty and suretyship relations in Oklahoma may be relinquished by contractual waiver. [32] When parting with funds, the promisee is free to exact from the promisor terms and conditions less favorable to a guarantor than those afforded by statute. [33] The guaranty agreement in suit provides specific instructions to be followed if mortgaged property is foreclosed. Its terms detail not only how to calculate the amount to be credited against the debt after foreclosure but also give specific directions for allocating the credit. By executing this agreement with the Bank, these guarantors waived any statutory right to setoff under 15 O.S. 1981 § 341. [34] The guarantors have neither contended nor shown that the guaranty agreement is unenforceable for public policy reasons, and we know of no legal impairment to its enforcement.