Southwestern Surety Insurance v. Pacific Coast Casualty Co.

Citations

• 92 Wash. 654
• 159 P. 788
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 808

Syllabus

<p>Receivers — -Actions—Leave to Sue — Waiver. Failure to obtain leave to sue a receiver is not jurisdictional but an irregularity that may be waived or cured at any stage of the proceedings.</p> <p>Same — -Sureties — Liability on Bond — Breach of Duty — Conversion of Property Redelivered. Where a receiver brought an action of replevin, and pending suit, disposed of the property without order of court, he was guilty of a conversion and a breach of his official duty, rendering the surety on his official bond liable to the surety in the replevin bond, who paid the judgment against the receiver.</p> <p>Same — Liability on Bond — Extent—Subrosation. Where a receiver’s surety in a replevin bond paid the judgment against the surety, recovered through the receiver’s neglect of duty in converting the property replevined, the surety is subrogated to the rights of the party-in possession of the property; hence his recovery against the surety on the receiver’s official bond is limited to the value of the property, and is not measured by the amount of the judgment against the receiver in the replevin suit; since the receiver’s official bondsman undertakes to answer only for the value of the property coming into the receiver’s hands, not for the amount of creditor’s claims.</p> <p>Same. Where the court, in replevin by a receiver, failed to find the value of the property, and the receiver made himself liable on his official bond by converting the property pending the suit, the receiver’s allegation in the replevin complaint that the property was of the value of $800, does not determine the value of the property and is not conclusive in an action on the receiver’s bond to hold the receiver’s surety for the value of the property converted.</p>