A guarantor is exonerated except so far as he may be indemnified by the principal if by any act of the creditor, without the consent of the guarantor, the original obligation of the principal is altered in any respect or the remedies or rights of the creditor against the principal in respect thereto in any way impaired or suspended.
S.D. Codified Laws § 56-1-22
Exoneration of guarantor--Alteration of original obligation of principal--Impairment of rights of creditors
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case First National Bank of Beresford v. Nelson (1982)
Most recently applied in Lane v. Travelers Indemnity Co. (May 1997)
Source: SDC 1939, § 26.0116.
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: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.