44 Mo. 373 | Mo. | 1869
delivered the opinion of the court.
This suit was instituted March 28, 1867, and is founded upon the bond of the defendant Minor, as sheriff of Daviess county,
Without going into the details of the case, or into a minute examination of the pleadings, it is sufficient to observe that it appears from the case that Minor, as sheriff, under the order and judgment of the Circuit Court of Daviess county, in 1859, in a partition suit there pending, sold the lands (the subject of said suit) on a short credit, receiving the notes of the purchasers of the lands as security for the purchase money; that on and prior to March 10, 1861, he had collected on these notes the sum of $>1,356.50 and the interest thereon; and that he never at any time made any return or report of these collections to the court or to the plaintiffs, who were the parties interested therein. Nor was any demand for payment made upon him until this suit was brought.
Upon this state of facts it is claimed by the defendants that the plaintiffs’ cause of action accrued at the date of the collections, which was prior to March 10, 1861, and that the statute of limitations then commenced running. Upon this assumption it is further insisted that the action is barred — the cause of action, according to this view, having accrued more than three years prior to the commencement of the suit. The point to settle in the case is, when did the cause of action accrue ? The liability of the sheriff for moneys collected on sales in partition is substantially the same as for moneys collected on execution. ( R. C. 1855, p. 1116, §§ 35-6; Gen. Stat. 1865, p. 614, § 35.) In either case it is his duty to report or make return of his proceedings to the court.
As to the time when the liability of the sheriff attaches for neglect to account for moneys collected on execution, and a consequent right of action accrues against him, the decisions of the
We are therefore disposed to hold that in a case like the present the cause of action does not accrue, so as to put in motion the
Various other questions were raised in the progress of the trial in the Circuit Court, but, as they have not been adverted to in the discussions here, they are passed without comment.
The judgments appealed from are reversed and the cause remanded.