Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland

Citations

• 74 Wash. 543
• 134 P. 498
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 2089

Syllabus

<p>Bonds — Construction—Joint or Several Liability — Subroqation of Surety. Where an injunction bond was given by various lumber companies, as interveners in a suit in which a temporary injunction issued restraining the defendant railroad companies from putting into effect a schedule of increased freight rates, and the bond was conditioned that the interveners “shall severally repay to the defendants severally upon the several shipments” of the interveners, such increase in rates as may be adjudged to be lawfully chargeable, the bond does not create a joint liability for the increased freight found by the court to be lawful, but each shipper was severally liable only for the amount due on its own shipments; hence the subrogation of the surety on the bond under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 978, must be in severalty against the shippers found liable, especially in view of the fact that the several interveners were strangers to each other as far as business relations were concerned, and had no interest in common other than securing the injunction.</p>