several liability

several liability
several liability see liability 2b

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law. . 1996.

several liability
n.
Liability for something held by every individual involved with some matter, which allows for a separate lawsuit to be brought against each party.

The Essential Law Dictionary. — Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. . 2008.


several liability
When a party is responsible for his or her own obligation (separately from another's liability), so that the plaintiff may bring a separate action against that party without suing other responsible parties. Compare: joint liability
Category: Accidents & Injuries
Category: Small Claims Court & Lawsuits

Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary. . 2009.

several liability
Where co-obligors assume liability and each of them is treated as having assumed liability solely for its own performance. Each will be responsible only for its own failure to perform (and for the loss or damage flowing from its own breach). Where the contract so provides, the liability of each co-obligor may be for an equal share of the whole or for a specified proportion. Proceedings must be brought against individual co-obligors for their share.
+ several liability
USA
Also known as several.
In the case of more than one obligor to an obligation, each obligor is liable for only its portion of the relevant obligation. A typical example of several liability is a syndicated loan agreement where multiple lenders are each liable for only their portion of the loan. If one lender fails to advance its portion of the loan to the borrower, the other lenders in the syndicate have no liability to fund that portion and the borrower can only sue the defaulting lender.
Another example is a stock purchase agreement with more than one seller where the sellers' indemnification obligations may be several, but not joint (joint liability), so that each seller is liable to the buyer only for its proportionate share of the damages (rather than 100%). This generally happens when there are some sellers who own a large percentage of the target company and are actively involved in the target company's operations and some who own a small percentage with a passive involvement.
Related links

Practical Law Dictionary. Glossary of UK, US and international legal terms. . 2010.

several liability
n.
   referring to responsibility of one party for the entire debt (as in "joint and several") or judgment when those who jointly agreed to pay the debt or are jointly ordered to pay a judgment do not do so. A person who is stuck with "several liability" because the others do not pay their part may sue the other joint debtors for contribution toward the payment he/she has made.

Law dictionary. . 2013.

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