Joint and Several Liability
Two or more parties who share legal responsibilities and obligations are said to have joint liability. This means that if two partners take out a business loan together and the appropriate provision is written into the loan agreement, each party is liable for the full amount. Therefore, if one partner dies or cleans out the cash drawer and heads for Paraguay, the remaining partner is liable for repayment of the entire loan.
This has significance for the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, as well as the defendant. For example, suppose the plaintiff was injured at a facility that is managed by Mr. Jones, who one partner in a business. The plaintiff brings suit against Mr. Jones for damages. Under the doctrine of joint liability, Mr. Jones can demand that his partner(s) be joined in the lawsuit, or named as co-defendants.
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If the suit involves the collection of a debt, the plaintiff - in this case the creditor - may sue for the debt only once. Therefore, if Mr. Jones, Mr. Wasabe and Mr. Singh are all co-signers on the loan, the creditor should bring suit on all three. The reason is that even though each partner is himself responsible for the entire amount of the loan, if the plaintiff sues only Mr. Jones and/or Mr. Wasabe then fails to collect the entire amount, s/he is legally barred from any attempts to collect from Mr. Singh.
There is also what is known as joint and several liability. As applied to the above case, all three partners are jointly liable for payment of the debt. However, if only one of the partners - say Mr. Jones - is sued and winds up paying the entire amount, the doctrine of joint and several liability allows him to sue Mr. Wasabe and Mr. Singh for their share of the liability in question.
This is also applicable when a plaintiff sues for negligence. Forty-six states have a joint and several liability rule. However, under pressure of corporatist legislators, several of these states now limit its application.