If a surety satisfies the principal obligation, or any part thereof, whether with or without legal proceedings, the principal is bound to reimburse what he has disbursed, including necessary costs and expenses; but the surety has no claim for reimbursement against other persons, though they may have been benefited by his act, except as prescribed by the next section.
Cal. Civ. Code § 2847
Position of Sureties
Applied in 23 court decisions — leading case 21 Cal. 4th 28 - Cates Construction, Inc. v. Talbot Partners (1999)
Most recently applied in Duke v. Superior Court of Kern Cnty. (November 2017)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.