Section 8-3-13 Surety may require creditor to bring action against principal; discharge of surety upon failure to bring action.
Section 8-3-13
Surety may require creditor to bring action against principal; discharge of surety upon failure to bring action.
(a) A surety upon any contract for the payment of money or for the delivery or payment of personal property may require the creditor or anyone having the beneficial interest in the contract, by notice in writing, to bring an action thereon against the principal debtor or against any cosurety to such contract.
(b) If an action is not brought thereon in three months after the receipt of such notice and prosecuted with diligence according to the ordinary course of law, the surety giving such notice is discharged from all liability as surety or his aliquot proportion of the debt, as the case may be.
(c) One surety may give the notice in behalf of his cosureties.
(d) The remedy secured by this section does not apply to bonds or other contracts with collateral conditions, nor to the bonds of executors, administrators, guardians, or public officers.
(Code 1852, §§2647, 2648; Code 1867, §§3074, 3075; Code 1876, §§3414, 3415; Code 1886, §§3153, 3154; Code 1896, §§3884, 3885; Code 1907, §§5396, 5397; Code 1923, §§9555, 9556; Code 1940, T. 9, §§89, 90.)