Midgett v. Nelson

• Decision Date: 22 September 1937
• Docket Number: No. 23.,23.
• Citation: Midgett v. Nelson, 212 N.C. 41, 192 S.E. 854 (N.C. 1937)
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: MIDGETT . v. NELSON, Fish Com'r, et al.

192 S.E. 854

212 N.C. 41

MIDGETT .

v.NELSON, Fish Com'r, et al.

No. 23.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Sept. 22, 1937.

Appeal from Superior Court, Currituck County; C. L. Williams, Judge.

Action by W. J. Midgett against John A. Nelson, State Fish Commissioner, and others. From a judgment on a verdict for plaintiff against defendants Thomas A. Basnight, Assistant Fish Commissioner, and the Great American Indemnity Company, defendant Great American Indemnity Company appeals.

New trial.

Action by plaintiff for damages for tort alleged to have been committed under color of their offices by Jno. Nelson, State Fish Commissioner, and Thomas A. Basnight, Assistant Fish Commissioner, and to impose liability therefor upon the Great American Indemnity Company, surety on the bond of its codefendants.

Judgment of nonsuit was entered as to defendants Jno. A. Nelson and Wayland Baum.

There was verdict for plaintiff as against defendants Basnight and the said indemnity company, and from judgment on the verdict, the defendant indemnity company appealed.

J. Henry Leroy, of Elizabeth City, for appellant.

D. L. Russell, of Manteo, and George J. Spence, of Elizabeth City, for appellee.

DEVIN, Justice.

The appellant assigns as error the admission in evidence, over its objection, of the certificate of the State Commissioner of Insurance authenticating the bond of defendant Basnight. C.S. § 1779 renders competent copies of all official bonds filed or recorded in any public office when certified by the keeper of such records under the seal of his office. The certificate, which was here offered in evidence with the bond, was as follows;

"I, Dan C. Boney, Insurance Commissioner in and for the State of North Carolina, do hereby certify that the attached is a true and correct copy of the Schedule Bond covering all State officers and employees and which bond includes coverage upon John A. Nelson, as Fisheries Commissioner in the sum of $5,000 from June 9, 1931, through the present date, and which is still in force; and also includes Thomas A. Basnight, Assistant Fisheries Commissioner, in the sum of $1,000, covering from October 1, 1935, which bond is still in force.

"In Testimony Thereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affied my official seal at the City of Raleigh, this the seventeenth day of September A. D. 1936.

"Dan C. Boney,

"Insurance Commissioner."

The copy of the bond which appears in the record does not contain a schedule of the names of officials or employees bonded, nor the amounts thereof, nor the duration of the bond, and the only reference to the defendants in connection therewith is that...