§ 996.460.Judgment of Liability On Bond

Ordinarily, Civil Code § 2845 lets a surety require the creditor to proceed against the principal first before coming after the surety's own assets. Subdivision (a) sets that right aside for bonds enforced under this chapter: the judgment runs against the principal and sureties jointly and severally, in the beneficiary's favor, letting the beneficiary collect from whichever of them has the money.

Subdivision (b) leaves the actual dollar amount of the judgment to the court's determination on the record before it. Subdivision (c) then addresses a bond that outlives a single judgment: if the judgment doesn't use up the full amount of the bond, the bond's remaining capacity shrinks by that amount but isn't discharged, the beneficiary, or another beneficiary, can enforce what's left of the bond again later, as many times as it takes to exhaust it.

Subdivision (d) confirms the beneficiary can go straight after the sureties to enforce the judgment, without waiting on the principal. That doesn't erase what the sureties can do to the principal afterward, a surety who pays keeps whatever right of subrogation it has against the principal, and keeps the right to compel the principal to satisfy the judgment instead.