A woman executed a guarantee for a company that was fully controlled by her husband. After the dicorce the bank demanded that she pay the company debt that she was notified of through an automatic notification as well as when she signed a due diligence form in which she stated that she was aware that the company did not repay the debt and of the amount of the debt.
The Court held that the woman needs to pay the debt. Generally, the bank has a duty to notify a guarantor as soon as the debtor does not pay the debt. When the guarantor is a sole guarantor, who is not a corporation and is not a spouse of the debtor or his partner and is not an interested party of the corporation, the bank has increased obligations towards him. For the purposes of the definition of an "interested party in a corporation," an individual and his family members who live with him, or who have a one-on-one support, shall be deemed one person. Here, the ex-husband is the controlling shareholder in the company and the woman was married to him when she signed the guarantee, so she is deemed an interested party and does not enjoy the defenses of a sole guarantor. Therefore, the bank has no increased obligations towards the woman, and the notification made to her is sufficient in order to make her liable to the debt.