Skagit County v. American Bonding Co.

Citations

• 59 Wash. 1
• 109 P. 197
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 1124

Syllabus

<p>Limitation of Actions — Official Bonds — Accrual of Actions. The statute of limitations applicable to an action on the official bond of a county officer, for various defalcations and misappropriations of funds which were not known to the county during his term of office, does not begin to run as against the county until the expiration of the term of office for which the bond was given.</p> <p>Same — Action for Fraud — Discovery. Subdivision 4 of Item. & Bal. Code, § 159, providing that a cause of action for fraud does not accrue until the fraud is discovered, applies to actions on the official bond of a county officer for embezzlement of funds, under a strict construction of said section.</p> <p>Counties — Officers—Official Bonds — Breach— Violation of Duty. A compensated surety on the official bond of a county auditor cannot make the defense that the auditor’s receipt and conversion of license fees properly payable to the treasurer, his issuance of illegal warrants, and his forgeries by the raising of warrants, were merely private acts and not official acts constituting a breach of his bond, where they were breaches of his official duty as auditor and could not have been successfully perpetrated as a private citizen.</p>