Joint Obligations

A joint promise by two or more persons creates a single obligation upon both or all. The theory of a joint and several promise is that it creates both a joint obligation incumbent upon all and a number of several obligations respectively incumbent upon each one; but the several obligations are non cumulative, so that (as with purely joint obligations) performance by any one will discharge all. The presumption is that a contract made by two or more persons is joint, express words being necessary to make it joint and several: Glanville Williams, Joint Obligations (1949), Butterworths at 24; see too Re Hodgson (1885) 31 Ch D 177 at 188.

The fact that an obligation is joint does not mean that a joint obligor is only partly liable for the amount of the obligation.

A successful plaintiff is entitled to enter judgment for the full amount of its proven claim but is not entitled to double recovery. Payments effect a reduction in the amount of the liability of each defendant.

Junker v Hepburn [2010] NSWSC 88 [52]-[54]