Does the requirement that the government bring suit against the guarantors within a reasonable time after the borrower's default have anything to do with the equitable defenses of estoppel and laches?

In the first place, the requirement that the government bring suit against the guarantors within a reasonable time after the borrower's default has nothing to do with the equitable defenses of laches and estoppel. Rather, it is simply an implied condition to a contract, which the government entered into voluntarily, and which the government is now trying to enforce in a garden variety action at law, as distinguished from equity. See DeWeerth v. Baldinger, 836 F.2d 103, 110 (2d Cir.1987) ("Laches is an equitable defense that requires a showing of delay and prejudice to the defendant, whereas the reasonably prompt demand principle involved in this case is a legal doctrine based exclusively on an unexcused lapse of time."); cf. Mack, 295 U.S. at 489, 55 S.Ct. at 817-18 ("Laches

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