Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts

MERCANTILE LAW ACT 1962 - SECT 13

    (1)     Subject to this section, a person who, being surety for the debt or duty of another or being liable with another for a debt or duty, pays the debt or performs the duty, is entitled—

        (a)     to have assigned to him or her or to a trustee for him or her every judgment, specialty or other security held by the creditor in respect of the debt or duty, whether the judgment, specialty or other security is, or is not, deemed at law to have been satisfied by the payment of the debt or the performance of the duty; and

        (b)     to stand in the place of the creditor and to use all the remedies, and, if need be and upon proper indemnity, to use the name, of the creditor in any action or other proceeding at law or in equity in order to obtain from the principal debtor or any co-surety, co-contractor or co-debtor, as the case may be, indemnification for the advances made or loss sustained by the firstmentioned person.

    (2)     The payment of a debt, or the performance of a duty, in the circumstances referred to in subsection (1) does not prevent the bringing of any action or other proceeding by virtue of that subsection.

    (3)     A co-surety, co-contractor or co-debtor is not entitled, by virtue of subsection (1), to recover from another co-surety, co-contractor or co-debtor more than the just proportion for which, as between the parties themselves, the other co-surety, co-contractor or co-debtor is justly liable.