Chap. 237.—An ACT to amend and re-enact chapter 143 of the Code
of 1873, fur the relief of sureties.

Approved March 12, 1878.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the one hundred and forty-third chapter of the Code of eigh-
teen hundred and seventy-three be amended and re-enacted
so as to read as follows: |

§ 1. When the surety (or his committee or personal repre-
sentative) of any officer required to give an official bond
shall petition the court by which the bond is taken, or in
which, or in the clerk’s office of which it is recorded, or the
circuit court of the county or corporation in which (where
the bond is not taken by or filed in any court or clerk’s office)
the officer resides, to be relieved from the suretyship, such
court shall, on proof of reasonable notice of his intended
motion, require such officer to give a new bond in the same
manner as if none had been given by him. And when the
obligor (or his committee or personal representative) in the
bond required of any depository by section twenty-five of
chapter fifty-eight of this Code, shall petition the governor
of the state to be relieved from the obligation, the governor,
upon proof of reasonable notice to said depository of the
said petition, shall require the said depository to give a new
bond, in the same manner as if none had been given. And
the treasurer of the state, upon notice of the said petition,
shall make no further deposits with the said depository until
after such new bond shall have been given, approved, and
accepted. And in the meanwhile, if he deem it best for the
interest of the state, shall withdraw such deposits as may be
in said depository, and communicate in writing forthwith
the fact of such withdrawal to the governor, and thereafter
keep or deposit the same as the governor may direct.

§ 2. Upon such new bond being given, approved, and
accepted, according to law, the sureties in the former bond
of the officer and their estates, and the obligors in the former
bond given by or in behalf of the depository and their
estates, shall be discharged from all liabilities for any breach
of the said bond by such officer or depository after that
time; but*nothing contained in this section shall be so con-
strued as to release the said officer or depository, of any
obligation whatever.

§ 3. If any such officer, being so required, shall fail to give
such new bond within the time required by the court, he
shall be deemed to be guilty of a breach of official duty, and
shall be forthwith removed from office; and, if the new bond
required of any depository of the state be not given within
the time required, it shall be discontinued as a depository of
the state, and the moneys of the state shall be forthwith
withdrawn therefrom.

§ 4. The surety, or guarantor or endorser, (or his commit-
tee or personal representative,) of any person bound by any
contract may, if a right of action has accrued thereon, re-
quire the creditor, or his committee or personal representa-
tive, and, in case the contract be one under control of any
court, the commissioner or other officer of the court author-
ized to sue upon and collect the same, by notice in writing,
forthwith to institute suit thereon; and if he be bound in a
bond with a condition, qr for the performance of some col-
lateral undertaking, he shall also specify in such requisition
the breach of the condition or undertaking for which he
required suit to be brought.

§ 5. If such creditor, or his committee or personal repre-
sentative, or such commissioner or other officer of the court,
shall not in a reasonable time after such requisition, institute
suit against every party to such contract who is resident in
this state and not insolvent, and prosecute the same with
due diligence to judgment and by execution, he shall forfeit
his right to demand of such surety or his estate, and all his
co-sureties and their estates, the money due by such contract
for the payment of money or the damages sustained by any
breach of the collateral condition or undertaking specified as
aforesaid, and they shall be discharged from their said obli-
gation; but the conditions, rights, and remedies against the
principal debtor shall remain unimpaired thereby.

§6. If any person liable as bail, surety, guarantor, or
endorser, or any sheriff, liable for not taking sufficient bail,
or the committee or heir, or personal representative of any
80 liable, shall pay, in w hole or in part, any judgment, decree,
or execution rendered or awarded on account of such liability,
the person having right of action for the amount so paid,
may, by motion in the court in which the said judgment,
decree, or execution was rendered or awarded, obtain judg-
ment or decree against any person against whom such right
of action exists, for the amount so paid, with interest from
the time of payment, and five per centum dameges on said
amount.

§7. If any such surety (other than bail), or his committee,
or heir, or personal representative, shall confess judgment,
or suffer Judgment to go against him by default, without
giving notice to his principal (if he be a resident of the
state), or his committee or personal representative, to defend
the suit, and after such principal offers to defend the suit,
and tenders counter xecurity, approved by the court in which
the suit is pending, the said principal, or his committee, or
heirs, or representatives, may have the benetit of every
defence against the motion or suit of such surety or his com-
mittee, or representative, or heirs against him that he might
bave had against the creditor; and in all cases in which any
principal debtor or his committee, or representatives, or
heirs, knowing of the pendency of any suit against his
surety, or the committee, or heir, or personal representative
of such surety, shall not offer to defend such suit, he shall
be precluded from making any defence to the claim of the
surety which he might have made against the suit of the
creditor.

§ 8. If the principal debtor be insolvent, any surety or his
committee, or personal representative, against whom a judg-
ment or decree has been rendered on the contract for which
he was surety, may obtain a judgment or decree, by motion,
in the court in which the former judgment or decree was
rendercd, against any co-surety or his committee, or personal
representative, for his share, in law or equity, of the amount
for which the first mentioned judgment or decree may have
been rendered; and if the same had been paid, for such share
of the amount so paid, with interest thereon from the time
of such payment.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.