suretyship

A contractual relation, resulting from a primary, original, absolute, and unconditional engagement, whereby one person, the surety, engages to be answerable for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another, the principal. Madison County Farmers Asso. v American Employers' Ins. Co. (CA8 Ark) 209 F2d 581, 42 ALR2d 1153; Welch v Walsh, 177 Mass 555, 59 NE 440. While the contract of a surety is, in a sense, accessory or collateral to a valid principal obligation contracted by another person, either contemporaneously or previously, his obligation to the creditor or promisee of the principal is direct, primary, and absolute. 50 Am J1st Suret § 2. It is the essence of the contract that there be a subsisting valid obligation of a principal debt. Without a principal there can be no surety. First Nat. Bank v Boxley, 129 Okla 159, 264 P 184, 64 ALR 588. The vital difference between the contract of a surety and that of a guarantor is that a surety is charged as an original promisor, while the engagement of the guarantor is a collateral undertaking. A surety is a party to the principal obligation, undertaking together with the principal debtor that it shall be performed, while the guarantor is not a party to the principal obligation. 24 Am J1st Guar § 11.