JOINT AND SEVERAL (ante), a legal phrase defining the liability of two or more persons for a debt which they owe in common. It implies that each individual debtor is responsible not merely for a relative proportion of the indebtedness, but for the whole, and may be sued therefor if the creditor so elect. It might happen that all the debtors save one have become insolvent, in which case the one who is solvent may be compelled to pay the whole dela. In that case he will have a claim in law upon his co-debtors for their respective portions of the'common indebtedness, and no more; their responsibility to eaph other determined by a different rule from that which applies to their common relation to the creditor. In equity, however, those who are solvent are required to contribute equally toward the discharge of the entire debt. A'joint and several obligation may either be created by the express language of a contract or cove nant, or arise by necessary or fair implication of terms. It is usual to employ the
words, "we jointly and severally," but any other language fairly implying the same thing is equally binding. A joint and several obligation may also arise from the legal relations of the parties. If the creditor grant a release under seal to one of several joint debtors, he will thereby release them all. If a judgment against one be returned unsatisfied, it will not bar an action against the others. A joint and several liability may also arise in cases of tort; and when this happens the injured party may sue 'one, any, or all, of the responsible parties. Full damages may be recovered from the person prosecuted, and he will have uo claim upon the ()her wrong-doers unless he can show that he was not himself willfully or intentionally a participant in the wrong complained of.