Stout v. Vause

1 Va. 169, 1 Rob. 169
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedAugust 15, 1842
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1 Va. 169 (Stout v. Vause) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stout v. Vause, 1 Va. 169, 1 Rob. 169 (Va. 1842).

Opinions

Stanard, J.

The first question to be solved in this case is, does the record shew any valid claim in any one to subject the defendants, seven of the sureties of Isaac Heiskell in the bill discounted at bank, to contribution for the payment made (on the default of the principal) to take up that bill? This depends on the enquiry, whether the bill was taken up by a surety under circumstances to authorize the sureties against whom the claim of contribution is preferred, to make the payment subservient to their indemnity, in exoneration of the duty to contribute; or under circumstances to leave them subject to that duty. If the obligation of surety-ship, by virtue of which the payment was made, be not, in its substance and nature, that of one of several original sureties, then, according to the circumstances under which the obligation may have been incurred, the original sureties may be exempt from the duty of contribution altogether, and the new surety, on the other hand, be liable to indemnify them; or they may be bound to make full indemnity to such new surety paying the debt. Thus if the creditor, in the pursuit of his remedy against the principal debtor, obtains an additional security, as bail on the writ, or surety in the forthcoming or prison bounds bond, and such bail or surety pays the debt, he has no claim to contribution against the original sureties, and those sureties have the right, if they pay, to enforce his obligation for their indemnity. Examples of the application of this principle are furnished by the cases of Parsons v. Briddock, 2 Vern. 608. and Givens & al. v. Nelson’s ex’or & al. 10 Leigh 382. and many others that might be cited. If, on the contrary, the case be that of a creditor who, having the obligation [181]*181of the principal debtor and sureties, and desiring additional security, obtains the undertaking of a third party to pay the debt if the obligors do not, the discharge of the debt by this third party, under the obligation of this undertaking, entitles him to full indemnity from the sureties in the original obligation. If the suretyship be substantially and in its nature that of one of several original sureties, on the payment under its obligation, the duty of contribution attaches to the other sureties. Was the payment in this case made by a party whose obligation was of this nature }

Coupled with the facts agreed by the parties, the following are shewn by the record. Before the application of Heiskell to Zane, he and the seven sureties (defendants) had made their single bill payable to the Northwestern bank. This bill he proposed to discount at the bank, for which purpose it was necessary that he should have an “ endorser” (that is, a surety in the bill) living in Wheeling: and accordingly, under the arrangement made with Zane, Vause became a cosurety.

The rights and obligations of the parties depend on the facts so agreed and shewn. It is contended by the appellant that the just conclusion from them is, that Zane undertook to pay the money for Heiskell if he failed, that is, to assume the obligation of Heiskell on his failure, and by performing for him, to relieve and save harmless the surety Vause; and that such obligation, or at least the performance of it, enured to the benefit of all the sureties. It seems to me that this conclusion does not result from the facts, and is manifestly at war with any intention that can be rationally ascribed to Zane or Vause, the parties to the arrangement from which the conclusion is deduced. All that was asked of Zane was to become one of eight sureties. All that he was willing or intended to do was to incur such responsibility. This being most manifest, if not uncontested, the arrangement with Vause was but a substitu[182]*182lion of Vause’s responsibility for that which Zane was willing to incur, and as between Zane and Vause, made Zane liable for that suretyship which to the bank and the cosureties had been incurred by Vause. As between these parties, it was a suretyship of Zane in the name of Vause. The conclusion which converts the intended responsibility of Zane, from that of one of eight sureties, into one of indemnity to all the sureties for the whole debt, is drawn from a technical or rather a literal adherence to the terms in which the arrangement between Vause and Zane is slated in the agreed facts. That written statement should be expounded in reference to the ascertained intent and object of the parties to it, and the occasion that caused it. Vause had no possible motive to obtain from Zane an engagement that would enure to the indemnity of the other sureties, and Zane clearly did not intend to make such a one ; and a construction of the terms of the arrangement deducing an engagement which the one did not seek, and the other neither intended nor was even asked to incur, is, in my estimation, hostile to the clearest principles of justice and of law. For this construction there is no colour, unless the letter of that part of the agreed facts which professes to state the engagement of Zane to Vause, be insulated from the considerations that led to it, and then interpreted without regard to its object and the intent of the parties. The engagement so extracted from the statement of facts is the assurance of Zane to Vause, when he became endorser (or cosurety), “ that if Heiskell did not pay off the note when it arrived at maturity, he Zane would pay it off for him.” Detached from the circumstances which led to the assurance, and from the position of the parties, such an engagement might justly involve the responsibility which the argument of the appellant has ascribed to it. Had Vause been one of many sureties to an existing obligation of Heiskell, seeking indemnity from his principal, and had [183]*183HeisJcett given the indemnity, either by a lien on pro- . , i*. i perty, or in such an engagement oí a third person, the indemnity in either form, certainly in the first, might enure to the benefit of all the sureties. But such is not the case in question. Adhering to the letter of the extracted engagement, it is argued that Zane engaged to pay the note for Heiskdl. But how pay it ? as the substitute of Heiskdl? or in place of Vause? It is the one or the other, according to the intent and object of the parties Zane and Vause. Had Zane not procured Vause to be the surety, and made no engagement with him, then, on the default of Heiskdl, Vause would have been bound to pay the note; and if he paid it, he would pay for Heiskdl, and such payment would subject the other sureties to the duty of contribution. Vause was the surety substituted for Zane, with the engagement of Zane to discharge the obligation Vause had incurred at his instance. The stipulation to pay for Heiskdl cannot be interpreted so as to place Zane in the position of Heiskdl the principal, with his obligations. According to the just interpretation, Zane stipulated to pay for Heiskdl as Vause had bound himself to pay for Heiskdl, that is, as one of eight sureties ; and the payment made in pursuance of that engagement, by necessary intendment, would be in discharge of the obligation that Vatise had assumed for him.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1 Va. 169, 1 Rob. 169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stout-v-vause-va-1842.