Where the guaranty is absolute, there is no ground for the guarantor's plea of a right to demand notice of the principal's default. By the terms of his contract the possible default is fixed, and his not receiving notice of the same, puts no extra burden on him, as the date for the fulfillment of the contract already being known to him, he may make his plans accordingly. But the case of the conditional guaranty furnishes a different situation, and in the following cases notice of default is held necessary. First, where the contract contains the express condition that notice of default shall be given; a failure to give notice, in such a case, would discharge the surety, without his showing any injury resulting therefrom. Second, demand and notice are necessary where the guarantor's liability rests or is dependent on knowledge peculiarly within the power of the creditor or depending on his option; as where the determination of some question, such as the solvency of the principal, is to be looked to by the creditor. An example of this class would be a guaranty of the collectibility of a debt.16 The protection to the guarantor is the receiving the notice that the guarantor is in default, the creditor having endeavored to make collection through the legal remedies given him with no success; this protection is accorded the guarantor by showing him that the conditions of his contract have been fulfilled, and that he must meet the terms of his contract. The third class of cases in which notice is necessary is found in those that grow out of continuing guaranties of payment for advances to be made from time to time, as under a general letter of credit. A guarantor will not be held liable where, having made himself a guarantor, and having been accepted as such, and goods are sold under the guaranty, but no notice was given of the amount so sold to his principal, nor of the default in payment by the principal, until two years had gone by, and the principal had become insolvent.17 Whenever the determination of the amount to be paid on a guaranty for an uncertain sum is a matter over which the guarantor has no control, the duration of the guaranty being fixed, the guarantor is always entitled to notice.18

14 Welbe vs. Romond Oolitic Stone Co., 58 I11. App., 226.

5 Crears vs. Hunter, 19 Q. B. Div 341.