Opinion ID: 1289388
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: suretyship statutes

Text: Civil Code section 2809 provides: The obligation of a surety must be neither larger in amount nor in other respects more burdensome than that of the principal; and if in its terms it exceeds it, it is reducible in proportion to the principal obligation. Civil Code section 2810 provides: A surety is liable, notwithstanding any mere personal disability of the principal ... but he is not liable if for any other reason there is no liability upon the part of the principal at the time of the execution of the contract, or the liability of the principal thereafter ceases, unless the surety has assumed liability with knowledge of the existence of the defense.... (Italics added.) The liability of the surety is thus ordinarily commensurate with that of its principal ( U.S. Leasing Corp. v. duPont (1968) 69 Cal.2d 275, 290 [70 Cal. Rptr. 393, 444 P.2d 65]), and the surety will have a legal right to avail itself of defenses other than personal ones allowed the principal ( Flickinger v. Swedlow Engineering Co. (1955) 45 Cal.2d 388, 394 [289 P.2d 214]). Civil Code section 2847 provides: If a surety satisfies the principal obligation, or any part thereof, whether with or without legal proceedings, the principal is bound to reimburse what he has disbursed, including necessary costs and expenses; but the surety has no claim for reimbursement against other persons, though they may have been benefited by his act, except as prescribed by the next section. (The next section, 2848, provides that the surety who pays the principal's obligations is subrogated to remedies of the creditor and entitled to contribution from co-sureties.)