State v. Drury

36 Mo. 281
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1865
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 36 Mo. 281 (State v. Drury) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Drury, 36 Mo. 281 (Mo. 1865).

Opinion

Holmes, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a suit upon a curator’s bond against the principal and his securities, founded upon breaches which occurred during the period of their liability, and before the securities were discharged from any further liability for the failure or misconduct of their principal, in consequence of a new and additional bond, with new securities, having been ordered and given to the satisfaction of the county court. There [284]*284was ample evidence tending to establish several of the breaches alleged during the period of the liability of the defendants.

It appeared that the curator had converted the funds of his ward to his own use, by investing them in the business of a mercantile partnership of which he was a member, without taking security of any kind, and without the leave of the court or the consent of the securities, but that he had made annual settlements with the county court having jurisdiction of such matters ; that when he was required by the court to give a supplemental bond, and at the time when the new bond was given, his last settlement showed a balance in his hands amounting to #6,121.61; and that, at the next term after the new bond was given, another settlement was made showing a balance of #6,510.01 against him. This balance was demanded by his successor, who had been duly appointed, and payment was i*efused. The correctness of the accounts thus settled was not disputed.

It further appears that a suit had been brought by the successor, in the name of the State to the irse of his ward, against the principal and his securities on the second bond, grounded upon breaches alleged to have taken place after the second bond was given, and chiefly upon the failure of the removed curator to pay over the balance ascertained to be due by his last settlement, and that a judgment had been obtained against them for the amount. The defence had been set up in the suit, that the money shown by the last settlement to be due was not then actually in the hands of the curator, but that the whole amount had been wasted during the period of the first bond. This defence appears to have proved unavailing.

At the close of the evidence on the trial of the cause, instructions were asked by the plaintiff to the effect that the investment of the funds in the partnership business, with or without a special contract to pay interest, or an appropriation of the funds by the curator to his own use without the leave of the court and the assent of the securities, was a. [285]*285conversion of the funds and a breach of the bond which made the defendants liable. These instructions were refused, and the verdict being for the defendants, there was a motion for a new trial, and the case comes up by writ of error.

It is contended, on the part of the defendants, that the settlements of the curator were judgments, and conclusive in exoneration of the securities on the first bond, and that the plaintiff here, having obtained one judgment upon the second bond, is not now entitled to have another upon the first bond for the same breaches.

It is to be observed, first, that it clearly appears by the record, that the breaches assigned in the two suits are not entirely the same. Those alleged in the former suit consisted merely in the refusal or failure of the removed curator to account for and pay over to his successor the balance in his hands as ascertained by his last settlement. In this suit, the first two breaches assigned are indeed essentially the same as before, but the last three allege a conversion of the funds during the period of the first bond, in such manner as to show gross misconduct and a clear breach of trust, and, in consequence thereof, a failure and refusal to pay over to his. successor the balance of his last settlement. The instructions which were refused may be considered as having been predicated upon these last breaches; and the plaintiff was entitled to recover if he established either one of them, unless some valid defence was shown.

The bond of the curator was conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties according to law, as the statute required (R. C. 1845, p. 550, § 17), and the same statute gave the court power “ to order supplementary security to be given for the same causes, in the same manner, and with like effect,” as in cases of administrators (§ 17); and the “Act concerning administrators” (R. C. 1845, p. 88, § 37) provided “that such additional bond, when given and approved, shall discharge the former securities from any liability arising from any misconduct of the principal after filing the [286]*286same, and such former securities shall only be liable for such misconduct as happened prior to the giving of such new bond.” The plain intent of thes’e acts was that the security should be accumulative, and not an entire substitution of the one bond for the other. It is not a novation, which is either a necessary or a voluntary and intentional substitution of the one obligation for the other, whereby the former would become wholly extinguished. (Burge on Sur. 187.) This matter is not left open to construction; for the act expressly declares that the new bond shall not discharge the securities in the former bond from any liability arising from the misconduct of their principal prior to the giving of such new bond; they are discharged only from liability arising from any misconduct or failure of the principal after the new bond is given.

Now, in so far as the failure of the curator to pay over the balance of his last settlement to his successor alone constituted the breach and the failure to perform his duty according to law, it may be truly said to have taken place wholly under the second bond; and for that alone the securities in that bond were clearly liable. On the other hand, it is equally clear that for any breach predicated upon misconduct occurring during the period of the fii’st bond, and before the giving of the second, or upon any failure to discharge his duties according to law during that time, whereby a loss was occasioned, the securities on the first bond can alone be held liable. But in order that such a breach should be available to the plaintiff, and entitle him to recover, it was necessary that he should make it appear that the misconduct complained of had resulted in actual loss to his ward; and, therefore, it was entirely proper that he should, at the same time, allege as a part of the breach, that the curator had also failed to pay over to his successor, after his removal, the amount of funds in his hands, as ascertained by his last previous settlement. His cause of action against the defendants did not accrue until the curator had failed, [287]*287or refused, to account for and pay over to his successor the balance found due by his settlement, and his default had become complete. (Burge on Sur. 322.)

It might be seriously questioned whether, under the first two breaches here assigned, evidence would have been admissible to show a loss arising from any other misconduct, or any other failure of duty, than that averred in those breaches, namely, the failure to pay over the balance of the last settlement ; but the evidence which was offered was clearly admissible on the three last breaches, and it furnished a sufficient basis for the instructions which were asked by the plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
36 Mo. 281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-drury-mo-1865.