104 Wis. 470 | Wis. | 1899
This court has recently decided, after full consideration, that county courts, prior to the passage of ch. 335, Laws of 1897 (now found in part in sec. 42815, Stats. 1898), had no power, by the taking of a new bond or otherwise, to discharge sureties from liability for either past or prospective misconduct of an executor, administrator, or trustee, but that such new bond, if taken, was merely cumulative. Richter v. Leiby's Estate, 101 Wis. 434. This being the law, it is evident that the giving of the second bond in this case in August, 1893, did not discharge the liability of any surety on the first bond. But it is said that, while the sureties who did not sign the first bond were not discharged from liability to the distributees or creditors of the estate,, still, when the question of the right to contribution arises, the situation is different, and that the sureties on the second bond have by their own act become primarily liable, and cannot demand contribution from sureties who signed the first bond only, because the right of contribution is founded simply on equitable considerations, and does not arise from ex
By the Goxtrt.— Judgment reversed, and action remanded for a new trial.