65 Ala. 430 | Ala. | 1880
— This is an application by the appellant for a mandamus, directed to the appellee, Cook, who was clerk of the Circuit Court of Lowndes county, to compel him to approve a 'bond, offered to be given as security for costs, in order to contest an election for the office of judge of probate of that county. Cook declined to approve the bond, as his return to the rule nisi shows, for two reasons : first, because it was not such a bond as he, the respondent, was authorized and required by law to approve; second, because he did not deem the sureties tendered sufficient for the said bond, or for the sum therein named.
In Ex parte Thompson (52 Ala. 98), it was expressly decided, that a mandamus would not be awarded, to compel the approval of a bond, which was refused on the ground of the insufficiency of the sureties, — which is the identical question involved in this case. In Swan v. Gray (44 Miss. 393), where the statute made it the duty of the clerk of the Circuit Court to approve the bonds of all county officers, the act of approval was held to be so far judicial in its nature, that mandamus was held not to lie to control the judgment of the clerk as to the approval of a bond presented; and such seems to be the general current of settled authority. — High on Ex. Bern., §§ 46, 164, 326.
The prayer of the relator was properly refused, and the judgment of the Circuit Court is affirmed.