State ex rel. Baird v. Hull

53 Miss. 626
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1876
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 53 Miss. 626 (State ex rel. Baird v. Hull) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Baird v. Hull, 53 Miss. 626 (Mich. 1876).

Opinion

Campbell, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

In February, 1856', Mrs. Baird qualified as guardian of her two orphan children, and gave bond as such guardian, with D. H. Crisp as her surety. In May, 1860, she appeared before the Probate Court, which had appointed her guardian, and made application for permission to execute a new bond, “ her former security having moved out of this State.” Upon this information it was ordered by the court that the guardian should execute another bond, conditioned according [644]*644to law for the discharge of her duties as such guardian, with security, to he approved, in the penalty of $10,000 ; and thereupon the said guardian tendered a bond, with William Hull as her suret}r and co-obligor; which bond was approved by the court, and ordered to be filed and recorded as a compliance with said order of the court. The guardian made final settlement of her guardianship of one of her wards, and was found indebted to said ward $5,583.14, and ordered to pay over this sum. Failing in which, this action was instituted on the bond executed by the guardian and Hull as aforesaid. Hull, the surety, pleaded separately, presenting several grounds of defence, the chief of which is the alleged invalidity of the bond as having been taken without authority of law.

The Code of 1857, p. 461, art. 145, in force when this bond was executed, provides that “ any Probate Court by which a guardian was appointed may, for good and sufficient cause shown, displace such guardian, after having summoned him to appear. And if the court should be informed, or have cause to suspect, that the sureties of a guardian were insufficient at the time the bond was executed, or have become so since, or are in failing or dubious circumstances, it may require and compel such guardian to give additional security; and, if he should refuse of neglect to do so, he may be displaced and a new guardian appointed.” Under this statute the court could require additional security,” i.e., a new security, additional to the former,"upon information or cause to suspect, no matter from what cause, the original or supervening insufficiency of the sureties. The cause of such insufficiency is left, without restriction or enumeration of grounds, to the court. “ Insufficient” is a comprehensive term, embracing every cause or ground the court may regard as amounting to that. The matter is referred to the court, as the protector of wards. “ Cause to suspect ” the insufficiency of the sureties is enough to authorize the requirement of “ additional security; ” therefore no attempt was made to prescribe the particular circumstances in which “ additional security ” may be required. Removal from this State by the sole surety on a guardian’s bond is, undoubtedly, cause to suspect the insufficiency of [645]*645such surety. It is expressly made so in case of a public officer, whose surety removes, permanently, from this State ; and this furnishes a strong suggestion to the court in the case of a guardian’s surety having removed. If the court, having been informed of the removal from this State of Crisp, the only surety on this guardian’s bond, ordered a new bond, and stated the particular cause from which insufficiency of the former surety is a legal conclusion, rather than the conclusion without mention of the cause producing it, this is not a valid objection to the exercise of the lawful power of the court to require a new bond, since the record shows a state of case which made it the plain duty of the court to order the guardian to give additional security.

The language of the statute is, “ may require and compel such guardian to give additional security.” The terms “ sureties ” and “ security ” are used in their proper sense, the one as indicating persons, and the other the instrument which’ secures. If the old bond were executed by new sureties, it would thereby become a new security; and a new bond, distinct from the former, rvould be a new security. The name is not important. It is the end aimed at which must be considered. The particular way in which new security is given is not material. The term “ additional” embraces the idea of joining or uniting one thing to another, so as thereby to form one aggregate. We add by bringing things together. “Additional security ” is that which, united with or joined to the former, is deemed to make it as an aggregate sufficient as a security from the beginning. The statute contemplates not merely supervening insufficiency, after the grant of guardianship, but “insufficiency at the time the bond was executed.” In such case there is no discharge of the former surety, but his liability continues and is supplemented by the “ additional security,” both constituting security for the faithful discharge of duty by the guardian. The obligation of the guardian is to “ faithfully account . . . for the management of the property and estate of the orphan under his care,” &c. The additional security must be held to have been entered into with reference to the law in force, which prescribed the duties of [646]*646the guardian. It must be assumed that the “ additional security ” kept the guardian from being displaced, and brought to an immediate accounting for the management of the property of the ward up to that time; and the “additional security” must be held to stand as an indemnitjr for the discharge of the duties of the guardianship, as a whole, embracing the time before as well as after the date of the “ additional security.”

Where sureties apprehend danger and seek relief, and a new bond is given, the new bond, by express provision of the statute, art. 145, p. 461, Code of 1857, only operates “ for the future, the original sureties being bound for all breaches of the first bond; ” but no such provision is made with reference to the case of “ additional security ” required by the court, not on the application of sureties for relief, but on information or cause to suspect original or supervening insufficiency of sureties. In one case, the original sureties are discharged as to future breaches, and the new bond alone is a security as to them, because the law is so written; but it is not so written as to the other, and the language employed and the nature of the transaction contemplated negative such result.

In Lewenthall v. State, 51 Miss. 645, it is held that a new bond given by a tax-collector, under § 815 of the Code of 1871, operated for the future only; but there is a plain distinction between the statute under which that bond was given and that under which the bond in this case was executed. The decision in the case cited is rested on the general principié that a bond or other obligation, unless otherwise expressed, is prospective only in its operation, and that the statute under which the bond involved was given does “ not contemplate that the new bond covers past delinquencies.” The statute under which the bond in the case at bar was given, as above shown, does contemplate that the “ additional security ” it provides for shall cover the whole guardianship, and, with the former security, shall secure the faithful performance of duty by the guardian. State v. Stewart, 86 Miss. 652; Pinkstaff v. People, 59 Ill. 148; Ennis v. Smith, 14 How. 400, 417 ; Phillips v. Brazeal, 14 Ala. 746; Glenn v. Wallace, 4 Strob. Eq. 149.

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53 Miss. 626, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-baird-v-hull-miss-1876.