The case concerned a claim by an indorser of a bill of exchange that he was subrogated to securities provided by the acceptor to the holder of the bill. The court identified three kinds of cases in which rights of subrogation had been recognised and where suretyship principles apply: (1) where there is an agreement creating the relationship of principal and surety to which the creditor is a party; (2) where there is an agreement creating the relationship of principal and surety to which the creditor is not a party; and (3) where there is no agreement but that there is nevertheless a primary and secondary liability of two persons, the debt being ‘as between the two, that of one of those persons only, and not equally of both, so that the other, if he should be compelled to pay it, would be entitled to reimbursement from the person by whom (as between the two) it ought to have been paid’.
Lord Selborne LC did not however restrict the categories of cases in which the remedy of subrogation might be available so much as identify situations that were broadly analogous to those of the case before it.
Lord Selborne LC
(1880) 6 AC 1, [1874-80] All ER Rep Ext 1406
England and Wales
Equity, Banking
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.181984
