Fidelity & Deposit Co. v. Wilkinson County

Citations

• 109 Miss. 879
• 69 So. 865

Syllabus

<p>1. Constitutional Law. Due process of law. County depositories. Default. Penalty. Actions against sureties. Time of insolvenvy. Depositories. Liability on bonds. Fraud. Liability of sureties. Statutes. Special laws. County treasurers. Compensation.</p> <p>Under section-10 of the county depository law (chapter 194, Laws 1912), providing that, when a county depository fails to pay over money when demanded, the board of supervisors may employ counsel for its collection, and that counsel fees may be allowed and a penalty of one per cent, per month for delays in paying over funds, the allowance of such penalty and counsel fees is not improper, as depriving' the sureties of the depository of property without due process of law, since the state can decline absolutely to permit banks to become depositories of money belonging to the public and it necessarily follows that it can permit them to do so upon such conditions as it may see fit to impose.</p> <p>2. Depositories. Actions against. Sureties. Time of insolvency.</p> <p>In a suit against the sureties of a county depository by the county to collect money deposited, it was immaterial whether or not the county’s money had been embezzled in the hands of the depository before the period for which the liability of the sureties accrued, since the claim was not for the identical money deposited. ' .</p> <p>3. Depositories. Liability on bonds. Fraud.</p> <p>In a suit against the sureties of a depository, the fact that the officials of the bank falsely, represented to the sureties in writing that the bank was solvent and thereby induced them to go on the bond, did not relieve the sureties of liability on the ground of fraud; the county not being a party thereto.</p> <p>4. Depositories. Liability on bonds. Fraud.</p> <p>In an action against the sureties of a county depository, the fact that the board of supervisors did not require the bank to make the various reports provided for in section 7 of the depository law, nor to at any