17 Miss. 107 | Miss. | 1847
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was a motion made in the circuit court against McCrosky as sheriff, and the other plaintiffs in error, on his official bond. The only point for determination arises out of a demurrer to a plea in bar of the motion, the substance of which is, that McCrosky had been elected sheriff at a general election, and had given bond as the law required; that his sureties became dissatisfied, and applied to the probate court to require him to give new bond with other sureties, which he was ordered to do, and gave the bond on which the motion was founded. The sureties now contend that they are not liable on this bond, because the probate court had not jurisdiction to make any such order, and that consequently the original bond given by McCrosky is still binding, and is the bond on which the motion should have been founded.
This new bond was given in pursuance of a statutory provision, which authorized the former county courts, and also the circuit courts, on the application of the sureties in an official bond, to order the sheriff to give new sureties, and the original sureties were thereby discharged from further responsibility. H. & H. Dig. 325, § 15.
By the act of 1833, the jurisdiction of the county court, which was abolished by the constitution, was transferred to the board of police, except such jurisdiction as was vested by the constitution and laws in the probate court. It is contended that this power of requiring officers to give new sureties, was transferred, with other things, to the board of police, and not to the probate court; and that, therefore, this bond, given in pursuance of such order of the probate court, is not such a statutory bond as can be made the foundation of a motion; that if a party injured can have any remedy upon it, it must be by action as on a common law bond.
This jurisdiction is not specifically transferred to either court,
The law under consideration gives the sureties a right to require their principal to give new surety and discharge them ; and it gives them a remedy to enforce that right. They may undoubtedly apply to the circuit court, and formerly they might apply to the county court; two tribunals were thus clothed with power to hear and determine the matter. This was a remedy at law, but suppose the sheriff should not put his sureties to their legal remedy, but should voluntarily give bond and have it approved by the judge of probate, would it not be equally obligatory? The act certainly fieri ves no force from his being compelled to perform it. The judge of probate is competent to approve the bond, and if it was given in obedience to a void judgment, it may be regarded as voluntary. In the case of The