Jones, &C., v. Gallatin County

• Decision Date: 04 November 1879
• Citation: 78 Ky. 491
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals
• Parties: Jones, &c., v. Gallatin County.

Page 491

78 Ky. 491

Jones, &c., v. Gallatin County.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

November 4, 1879.

APPEAL FROM GALLATIN CIRCUIT COURT.

J. J. LANDRAM FOR APPELLANTS.

BEN. S. LINDSAY AND J. J. ORR FOR APPELLEE.

CHIEF JUSTICE PRYOR DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT.

W. H. Jones was elected sheriff of the county of Gallatin at the regular election in August, 1876. He failed to execute bond as required by law, and the office was declared vacant by the county court. At a special term of the court, held on the 19th of January, 1877, the following order was made: "On motion of Wm. H. Jones, sheriff, he is appointed collector of the county levies and ad valorem taxes in the county for the year 1877," &c. Jones was not in fact sheriff at that time, but was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by his failure to qualify. He executed bond as collector, with James H. Jones, Elijah Hogan, W. P. Holton, and Wm. Grubbs as his sureties. At the May term of the same year (1877) Jones appeared in court and executed an additional bond, with Alfred Arrowsmith as surety. This bond, the order recites, was taken and accepted in connection with the bond dated in January, 1877, and was evidently executed at the instance of the county court, and Arrowsmith was offered and accepted as an additional surety only.

On the 29th of September, 1877, Arrowsmith and Holton, two of the sureties on the bond executed on the 19th of January, 1877, obtained a rule against Jones, their principal, to show cause why he should not execute a new bond. The precise verbiage of the rule is not found in the record, the order of the 29th of September, 1877, reciting, "that W. H. Jones, sheriff, executed a new bond as collector of the county levies and ad valorem taxes of this county, in response to rule awarded, on the motion of Arrowsmith and Holton, with James H. Jones, Elijah Hogan, Martin Edwards, H. P. Clore, John C. Thomas, and Wm. Dudgeon, sureties, and the same is approved and ordered to be filed." This new bond obligates the principal to collect and pay over to the persons entitled the county levy, ad valorem taxes, and public dues of the county for the year 1877. The previous bonds contained a like stipulation, the sureties in each of the bonds holding themselves liable in the event of their principal's failure to account for the levies and public dues of the county for the year 1877.

After the county court had declared the office vacant, Jones was a candidate at the ensuing August election to fill the vacancy, and was elected, but never qualified.

Jones having failed to account for the moneys of the county collected by him, the county court instituted an action against Jones and his sureties on all the bonds to recover the amount due the county; and on a demurrer filed to the petition, it was adjudged that the sureties in the last bond alone were liable, and from that judgment they have appealed.

The sureties in the last bond, against whom judgment was rendered, say they are not liable, because the bond executed by them in September, 1877, was after the election of Jones to fill his own vacancy, and the bond was therefore void, Jones, as they insist, being ineligible by reason of his delinquency.

Whether eligible or not, is a question we will not determine. Jones had failed to execute a bond, after his first election, within the time required by law, and the county court, on the 19th of January, 1877, appointed Jones collector of the county levy and ad valorem taxes for that year, and the subsequent election of a sheriff did not deprive the collector of the right, under this appointment, to collect the county dues. He held his...