What is the enforceability of a guarantee executed by only one of the two intended guarantors?

Bank of Montreal v. Murphy does not support the plaintiff’s proposition. No issue arose in that case on the question of the enforceability of a guarantee executed by only one of two intended guarantors. The case dealt with the bank’s right to judgment in circumstances where the guarantors executed on the strength of a representation that they would only be called upon to pay one half until all reasonable efforts to recover the other half from other guarantors had failed. In the result the court held the bank estopped from declining to give effect to the representation, and accordingly, the bank obtained judgment for only one half of the principal debt. Although Lambert J.A. used such expressions as “refining remedies”, and “avoiding distortion and injustice”, much more definite policy directions would be required to warrant the court here departing from, or modifying, the long-standing principles relied upon by the defendant.