Eastern Railroad Company v. Loring

• Decision Date: 09 January 1885
• Citation: 138 Mass. 381
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: Eastern Railroad Company v. William M. Loring & another

138 Mass. 381

Eastern Railroad Company v. William M. Loring & another

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

January 9, 1885

Argued November 11, 1884.

Suffolk.

Contract upon a bond executed by the defendant Loring as principal and by the other defendant as surety, and conditioned that Loring, who had been appointed ticket seller of the plaintiff corporation in Boston, should "faithfully perform all the duties of the said office or place which are or may be imposed upon him under this or any future appointment," and promptly account for and pay over all sums of money received by him for the corporation. The case was submitted to the Superior Court, and, after judgment for the plaintiff to this court, on appeal, upon agreed facts, in substance as follows:

The defendant Loring was appointed ticket seller of the plaintiff corporation, gave the bond declared on, and entered upon his duties. He continued in the position of ticket seller until December 7, 1877, when a deficit was discovered in his accounts of $ 8007.59, which sum he has failed to account for and pay over.

At the time the bond was executed, in 1856, the capital stock of the plaintiff corporation was $ 2,853,400. After this it was increased from time to time, and at the time of the defalcation, in 1877, it was $ 4,997,600.

At the time of the appointment of Loring, his duties as ticket seller included the sale of tickets over the line of the plaintiff's road from Boston, in this Commonwealth, to Portsmouth New Hampshire, and its branches, in all about 130 miles, and also over four other railroads, comprising 910 miles, and three steamboat lines.

After Loring entered upon his duties, the business of the plaintiff was extended from time to time by forming new connections, so that at the time of his defalcation he was selling tickets over the lines of thirteen other railroads, comprising 1211 miles, and two steamboat lines in addition to those before mentioned:

At the time of Loring's appointment, he performed all the duties of the office himself, but, as the business of the road increased, and before the defalcation, the duties of his office had increased to such an extent that an assistant ticket seller was employed by the plaintiff to help him in his duties, who was entrusted with the sale of tickets, and whose salary was paid by the plaintiff, but who did not participate in any misappropriation of the plaintiff's funds.

Loring's salary as ticket seller was $ 1000 a year at the...