The surety, guarantor or endorser, or his committee or personal representative, of any person bound by any contract may, if a right of action has accrued thereon, require the creditor or his committee or personal representative, by notice in writing, to institute suit thereon, and if he be bound in a bond with a condition, or for the performance of some collateral undertaking, he shall also specify in such requirement the breach of the condition or undertaking for which he requires suit to be brought. Such written notice shall also notify the creditor, his committee or personal representative, that failure to act will result in the loss of the surety, guarantor or endorser, his committee or personal representative as security for the debt in accordance with § 49-26.
Va. Code Ann. § 49-25
Surety may require creditor to sue
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Colonial American National Bank v. Kosnoski (1980)
Most recently applied in M & T Electrical Contractors, Inc. v. Capital Lighting & Supply, Inc. (In Re M & T Electrical Contractors, Inc.) (April 2001)
Code 1919, § 5774; 1979, c. 664.
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: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.