Whether an indemnity survives the failure of the principal debtor to be bound depends on the construction of the particular contract of indemnity, not on a general rule. Where a deed is intended as a tripartite agreement with mutual covenants, an indemnity clause that assumes the debtor's obligation to pay will not operate where the debtor was never bound. Damages for breach of warranty of authority must account for the plaintiff's remaining remedies against the alleged principal, and failure to adduce evidence of the value of those remedies may be fatal to the claim.
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