Federal Act
on the Amendment of the Swiss Civil Code
(Part Five: The Code of Obligations)

¹The cred­it­or may re­sort to a simple surety only if, after the surety was provided, the debt­or is de­clared bank­rupt or ob­tains a debt re­struc­tur­ing morator­i­um, or is the ob­ject of debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings in­stig­ated with due di­li­gence by the cred­it­or which have res­ul­ted in the is­sue of a defin­it­ive cer­ti­fic­ate of loss, or has re­lo­cated his dom­i­cile abroad and can no longer be sued in Switzer­land, or leg­al ac­tion against him in for­eign courts has been sub­stan­tially im­peded as a res­ult of such re­lo­ca­tion.

² Where the claim is se­cured by pledges, a simple surety may re­quire that the cred­it­or sat­is­fy his claim first from such pledges, provided the debt­or has not been de­clared bank­rupt or ob­tained a debt re­struc­tur­ing morator­i­um.

³ Where the surety has un­der­taken solely to cov­er any short­fall suffered by the cred­it­or (in­dem­nity bond), he may not be sued un­less a defin­it­ive cer­ti­fic­ate of loss has been is­sued against the prin­cip­al debt­or or the lat­ter has re­lo­cated his dom­i­cile abroad and can no longer be sued in Switzer­land, or leg­al ac­tion against him in for­eign courts has been sub­stan­tially im­peded as a res­ult of such re­lo­ca­tion. Where a com­pos­i­tion agree­ment has been con­cluded, the surety may be sued for the re­mit­ted por­tion of the prin­cip­al ob­lig­a­tion im­me­di­ately on the entry in­to force of the com­pos­i­tion agree­ment.

⁴ Agree­ments to the con­trary are re­served.