“As prescribed by section 1541 of the Civil Code, an “obligation is extinguished by a release therefrom given to the debtor or the released party by the creditor or releasing party, upon a new consideration, or in writing, with or without new consideration.” “An obligation is a legal duty, by which a person is bound to do or not to do a certain thing.” Obligations arise by operation of law or by contract. Obligations imposed on several persons may be joint, joint and several or several. As a general rule, obligations are presumed to be joint, and not several, but there are significant exceptions. If suit is brought on an obligation on which the plaintiff has executed a release, the existence of the release will form an affirmative defense in many cases. A valid release conclusively estops the parties from reviving and relitigating the claim released. A valid release is a complete defense to action against the person(s) released.”
[California Affirmative Defenses [certain citations omitted]]
