Opinion ID: 1942141
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Acceptance of Debtor's Property In Payment

Text: C.C. 3062 provides that: The voluntary acceptance on the part of the creditor, of an immovable or any other property, in payment of the principal debt, is a full discharge of the surety, even in case the creditor should be afterwards evicted from the property so accepted. Defendant contends that the acceptance by the creditor of property in the compromise agreement from Rex and the other co-obligors should discharge him. We need not decide whether this right of the simple surety is available to a solidary surety who does not specifically waive it, although it would seem that C.C. 3062 is designed to protect a simple surety only, in the exercise of his rights of discussion, division or subrogation. When Hanagriff executed the continuing guaranty instrument, he agreed that the bank might, without notice, accept securities and grant releases and discharges, apply money and securities as it saw fit, without in any way affecting or lessening the liability of the guarantors. This was an effective waiver of any rights defendant might hope to find in C.C. 3062. ... we look to the essence rather than the form. Gasquet v. Thorn, 14 La. 506, 509 (1840). It is the essence rather than the form of a contract which must determine its character. Alter v. Zunts, 27 La.Ann. 317, 318 (1875).