People v. Metropolitan Surety Co.

The defendants appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiff and against the corporation defendant for $18,732.85, and from an order denying their motion for a new trial.

The above-mentioned sum was the amount of an alleged shortage in the accounts of George A. Wiley, as treasurer of Contra Costa County, and the action was brought to recover this sum from the corporation defendant, as surety on Wiley’s official bond.

Wiley was elected county treasurer in November, 1902, to serve for a term beginning January 5, 1903, and ending on January 7, 1907. He duly qualified, giving a bond in the penal sum of eighty thousand dollars, executed by United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company as surety. In November, 1906, he was elected for a second term, and in the same month he executed a bond, with the defendant, The Metropolitan Surety Company, as surety, in the penal sum of one hundred thousand dollars, to secure the faithful performance of his duties during the succeeding term. He continued to occupy the office of treasurer of the county until the fourth day of February, 1907, when he committed suicide. A count of the money remaining in the treasurer’s vault disclosed a shortage as above…