State v. Meyer

• Decision Date: 08 June 1909
• Citation: 138 Mo. App. 507,120 S.W. 116
• Parties: STATE ex rel. OSTMAN v. MEYER et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

120 S.W. 116

138 Mo. App. 507

STATE ex rel. OSTMAN v. MEYER et al.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

June 8, 1909.

SHERIFFS AND CONSTABLES (§ 157)—LIABILITY ON OFFICIAL BONDS.

An action on the official bond of a constable does not lie for the malicious act of the constable in making an affidavit for the arrest of a person for resisting him in an attempt to serve a writ, on which affidavit such person was arrested.

Appeal from Circuit Court, St. Charles County; Jas. D. Barnett, Judge.

Action by the State, on the relation of Wilhelmina Ostman, against Albert Meyer and others. From a judgment for defendants, relator appeals. Affirmed.

This is an action, commenced in the circuit court of St. Charles county, against Albert Meyer, and his sureties on his bond, as constable of St. Charles township in that county. The conditions of the bond are, as required by statute, "that if the abovebound Albert Meyer shall execute all process to him directed and delivered, pay over all money received by him by virtue of his office as constable of St. Charles township, in said county of St. Charles, and in every respect discharge all the duties of constable according to law, then this bond to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and effect." The amended petition, on which the case was tried, averring that Meyer was elected constable on the 8th of November, 1904, and qualified on the 26th of November, 1904, and gave the above-mentioned bond, as required by law, the bond being in the penal sum of $2,000, avers that on the 10th of December, 1904, Meyer, in his official capacity as constable, as aforesaid, appeared before a justice of the peace of St. Charles county, and on oath stated that on the 9th of December, 1904, the relator herein had knowingly and willfully obstructed, resisted, and opposed him, "the said Albert Meyer, constable of St. Charles township, in St. Charles county, Missouri," in the attempt to serve a certain writ of execution issued by a justice of the peace of the county, by then and there preventing, and trying to prevent, Meyer, as constable, from taking into his possession certain personal property upon which he the said constable, had levied, by virtue of a certain execution issued by the justice in the case named, "the said Albert Meyer being then and there in the discharge of his official duties as constable of St. Charles county." It is then averred that the affidavit was sworn to by the defendant Albert Meyer before the justice of the peace, on the 10th of December, 1904; that thereupon the prosecuting attorney of St. Charles county, acting on the affidavit of Albert Meyer, "and at the request of Albert Meyer, constable, as aforesaid, filed before said justice an information, charging plaintiff with knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully obstructing, resisting, and opposing defendant Albert Meyer, constable, in the service and execution, and in the attempt to serve and execute and levy the aforesaid execution, in the discharge of his duty as such constable, by then and there unlawfully, willfully, knowingly, and with force and violence assaulting and beating said Albert Meyer," while he was in the discharge of his official duty; that thereupon the justice of the peace issued a warrant in due form, commanding the...