Brown v. Grover
| Decision Date | 09 October 1869 |
| Citation | 69 Ky. 1 |
| Parties | Brown, & c. v. Grover, administrator, & c. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
1. For the failure of a sheriff to execute the bond required by law for the faithful discharge of all his duties, etc., and to pay over, etc., the sheriff could be proceeded against by indictment. But
2. The mere failure of a sheriff to execute bond as required by law does not ipso facto forfeit his office.
3. Although the statute provides that if a sheriff fails or refuses to execute bond with surety as required by law for the collection of the revenue, at the January or February term of the county court, he shall forfeit his office, there is no such provision as to the other covenant required of the sheriff, and if there was it would be unconstitutional. (Lowe v. Commonwealth, 3 Met. 237.)
4. Wherever the constitution has created an office and fixed its term, and declared upon what grounds and in what mode an incumbent may be removed, it is beyond the power of the legislature to remove or suspend him from office for any other reason or in any other mode than the constitution itself has furnished.
5. Obligors who sign a bond in which it is recited that one of them is a sheriff are estopped from denying that he was sheriff.
APPEAL FROM OWEN CIRCUIT COURT.
J. D LILLARD, For Appellants,
4 Bush 383, Calloway v. Commonwealth.
Constitution of Kentucky, sec. 9, art. 6; sec. 36, art. 4.
Revised Statutes, secs. 2, 3, chap. 91, 2 Stanton, 339.
Revised Statutes, sec. 1, art. 23, chap. 28, 1 Stanton, 407.
Revised Statutes, secs. 10, 12, chap. 71, 2 Stanton, 191-2.
THOMAS B. FORD, For Appellees.
It is admitted in the record that the sheriff did not execute " bond " in the month required by law.
By sec 5, art. 6, Constitution of Kentucky, it is provided that on the first Monday in August, 1852, and on the first Monday of August in every second year thereafter, elections for sheriff shall be held; provided that the sheriffs first elected shall enter upon the duties of their respective offices on the first Monday in June, 1851, and after the first election on the first Monday in January next succeeding their election. And by sec. 3, art. 1, chap. 91, 2 Revised Statutes, 339 every sheriff is required to give an obligation to the commonwealth with sufficient sureties, before he enters upon the duties of his office, that he will by himself and deputies well and truly discharge all the duties of the office of sheriff, and pay over to such persons, and at such time as they may respectively be entitled to the same, all money that may come to his or their hands as sheriff. For the failure of a sheriff to execute the covenant prescribed as aforesaid, the sheriff could be proceeded against by...
To continue reading
Request your trial