Following the general rule of contract law, duress avoids the contract, where a surety becomes such by reason of being compelled to sign under duress. It is the better rule too, that duress practiced on the principal debtor alone will relieve the surety, as well as the debtor himself, in the case where the surety is ignorant of the true conditions existing between the principal debtor and the creditor.14 Where the surety signs with full knowledge of the duress, he cannot then, on the ground of the duress, escape liability on the contract. The argument usually advanced is, that if the principal contract is invalid, then the contract of the surety, which exists by reason of the principal's contract, is likewise invalid. But duress makes the contract voidable only, and not void.

12 State vs. Findley, 101 Mo., 368.

13 Sherman vs. State, 4 Kan., 570;

Hollandsworth vs. Commonwealth, 11 Bush., 617. 14 Peacock et al. vs. People, 83 I11., 331.