Subrogation — Payment by sum of principal debtors — Contribution — Payment by one secondarily liable — Subrogation to collateral — Surety bond given by nonpaying principal debtor to creditor — Intention of parties.
1. Where some of the principal debtors pay an obligation for which all are liable, the payors may be subrogated to the claim of the creditor in order to obtain contribution from the principal debtors who have not paid their just share of the obligation.
2. So, too, if one who is only secondarily liable for a debt pays it to the creditor, the former may, in the name of the latter, compel payment to him by the principal debtor.
3. So, too, if the creditor holds securities belonging to and deposited by the principal debtor to protect him, the creditor, from loss by reason of his assuming liability for the principal debtor, one who is secondarily liable to the creditor and has been compelled to pay the debt, may be subrogated to the right of the creditor as against the securities thus deposited.
4. But one or more principal debtors compelled to pay the obligation due by all of them, cannot claim upon a surety bond given by a nonpaying principal debtor to the creditor, unless it is made to appear that this was the intention of the parties and was known to and acquiesced in by the surety.
Argued May 1, 1934.
PER CURIAM, May 21, 1934:
A majority of the judges of this court agree with both the reasoning and the judgment of the Superior Court in this case, as appears in 112 Pa. Super. 270.
The judgment of the Superior Court is affirmed.