American Bonding Co. of Baltimore v. Pueblo Inv. Co.

Citations

• 150 F. 17
• 9 L.R.A.N.S. 557
• 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4522

Syllabus

<p>1. Principal and Surety — Suretyship and Guaranty — Character op Contract.</p> <p>The contract of suretyship is not that the obligee will see that the principal obligor pays his debt or fulfills his contract, but that the surety will see that the principal pays or performs.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 40, Principal and Surety, § 1.]</p> <p>2. Same — Contracts of, Construed by Same Rules as Other Agreements.</p> <p>Written language has the same significance, and its meaning is to be ascertained by the same rules of law where it is found in the contract of a surety as where it appears in other agreements.</p> <p>3. Same — Obligation op Surety Neither Extended nor Reduced by Construction or Implication, but to'have Rational Interpretation.</p> <p>The obligation of a surety may not be extended or reduced by construction or by implication beyond the true meaning expressed by the contract.</p> <p>His agreement, like other contracts, must have a rational interpretation, which, while It carefully restricts his liability to that which he agreed to undertake, does not fail to hold him to that liability which by the plain terms of his agreement he promised to assume.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see Gent. Dig. vol. ,40, Principal and Surety, §§ 103, 108.]</p> <p>4. Same — Facts—Conclusion.</p> <p>Tenants agreed by a written leas© to put into the premises a heating plant, to renew the plumbing, to make other improvements, and to pay taxes and the premiums on insurance in lieu of rent, and to give a bond conditioned for their performance of their contract and to pay for the work and material used in the improvements, to the end that no lions should be fastened upon the property by their creditors. They gave a bond with a surety conditioned that they would perform all the obligations assumed by them by virtue of the lease, hut this bond contained no additional condition that they would pay for the work and material. Held, the lease an