Principal and Surety

Miss. Code Ann. tit. 87, ch. 5
in effect

Miss. Code Ann. § 87-5-1 Surety discharged if creditor fails to sue the principal debtor when notified.

Any person bound as surety or accommodation indorser for another, may, at any time after the debt has become due or liability been incurred, give notice in writing to the creditor to commence and prosecute legal proceedings against the principal debtor, if living and resident within this state, for the recovery of the debt; and if the creditor fails to commence legal proceedings by the next term of the court in which the same shall be instituted, to be held after the expiration of thirty (30) days from the giving of the notice, and to prosecute the same to effect, the surety who shall have given the notice shall be discharged from liability. It shall not be lawful to plead or to give in evidence under this section a notice not in writing, and any act of the creditor shall not be a waiver of notice in writing as herein required.

Miss. Code Ann. § 87-5-3 Surety paying or tendering the debt.

When any person who is bound as surety or indorser for another on any writing, for the payment of money or other thing, which shall remain unpaid, in whole or in part, by the principal debtor, after the maturity thereof, shall pay or tender to the creditor or holder of such writing the amount due thereon, the creditor or holder shall assign such writing to the surety or indorser paying or tendering the money or other thing due; and such assignee may have an action in his own name against the principal debtor upon the writing, to recover the amount paid in satisfaction of it.

Miss. Code Ann. § 87-5-5 Surety company may maintain action against defaulting principal.

When any surety or guaranty company has executed any bond or other contract as surety for any person, company or corporation, guaranteeing the performance of any duty or the payment of any money, and such person, company or corporation make default therein and said surety or guaranty company pays the amount for which the party insured or guaranteed is legally liable, the said surety or guaranty company becomes thereby subrogated to all the rights of the party in whose favor the security or guaranty is given, and such company may have and maintain an action against the principal in its own name to recover the amount paid out in satisfaction thereof.

Miss. Code Ann. § 87-5-7 Surety or indorser, when sued alone, must notify principal and make defense.

A surety or indorser shall not suffer judgment or a decree to be rendered against him by confession or default, without the consent of the principal debtor. And a surety or indorser who shall be sued alone, shall give notice of the suit to the principal debtor, if resident in this state, and if he have knowledge or information of any defense to the action which the principal debtor has, he shall make such defense; and if a surety or indorser, when sued alone, fail to give such notice to the principal debtor, in case he be a resident of this state, or to make such defense in the action of which he has knowledge or information, he shall be barred of all recovery against the principal debtor in case the principal debtor have at the time a good defense to the action of the creditor.

Miss. Code Ann. § 87-5-9 Surety paying a judgment.

If a judgment or decree be rendered by any court against a principal debtor and his surety, or against his sureties, and one or more of his sureties shall pay and satisfy the judgment or decree, the same shall, by operation of law, be thereby transferred and assigned to the surety or sureties paying and satisfying it, who shall have all the liens and equities of such judgment or decree and of the debt or claim on which the same is founded, which the creditor therein had. The surety, on making affidavit of his suretyship, and of his having paid the judgment or decree, and filing the affidavit and any evidence of such payment that he may hold, with the officer authorized to issue execution on the judgment or decree to whom he may apply for execution, shall be entitled to have execution issued on the judgment or decree, in the name of the plaintiff or complainant against the defendants therein, as if the judgment or decree had not been paid and satisfied. The officer issuing the execution shall indorse thereon that it is issued for the use of the surety who paid the judgment or decree; and the officer serving it shall collect the money, for the use of the surety, from the principal debtor, if he be a party to the judgment or decree and the money can be made out of him; and, if not, he shall collect a ratable proportion of the money from each of the co-sureties.

Miss. Code Ann. § 87-5-11 Bona fide purchasers and encumbrancers protected.

If such judgment or decree as is referred to in Section 87-5-9 shall appear to be satisfied, either on the judgment-roll, execution docket, or other record, property conveyed or encumbered thereafter by the principal debtor or sureties to any one for a valuable consideration, without notice of the fact that it was paid and satisfied by a surety, shall not be liable to such judgment or decree, unless at the time the property was conveyed or encumbranced, the record which showed the satisfaction of the judgment or decree, shall also show the fact that it was paid and satisfied by a surety, and the name of such surety.

Miss. Code Ann. § 87-5-13 Execution against principal and sureties; how served.

When execution shall issue on any judgment or decree rendered against a principal and surety, and the surety shall make affidavit that he is only surety on the instrument upon which the judgment or decree is founded, and deliver it to the officer serving the execution, the officer shall make the money, or as much thereof as possible, out of the property of the principal debtor, if he have any in the county to which the execution is issued subject to execution; and the officer shall return the affidavit with the execution.
Source: Public.Resource.Org MS CodeURL: https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ms/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.87.htmlFetched: 6/10/2026

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