R. P. Richards, Inc. v. Chartered Construction Corp.

Plaintiff R. P. Richards, Inc. (Richards), a subcontractor, sued defendant Chartered Construction Corporation (Chartered), a general contractor, and defendant Travelers Casualty and Surety Company (Travelers) to enforce a stop notice and a stop notice release bond. Richards settled with Chartered, obtained a judgment to enforce the settlement, and continued to prosecute the claim against Travelers as surety. The trial court concluded that the original obligation had been altered without Travelers’s consent thereby exonerating Travelers as surety (Civ. Code, § 2819), granted Travelers’s motion in limine to exclude all evidence other than the settlement agreement, and entered judgment in favor of Travelers.

Richards appeals (in case No. B131672) the judgment in favor of Travelers contending (1) Travelers as surety owes it an independent obligation that is enforceable notwithstanding Richards’s settlement with Chartered; (2) sections 3225 and 3226 expressly provide that an alteration of the original obligation does not exonerate the surety on a bond relating to a work of improvement, and section 2819 does not apply; and (3) Travelers consented to the settlement agreement…