County of Mendocino v. Johnson

This is an action brought by the county of Mendocino against J. E. Johnson, formerly its tax collector, and against the sureties upon his official bond, to recover the sum of $3,000, moneys which it is alleged were collected by the tax collector and not accounted for by him in accordance with law. The cause was tried by a jury, which rendered a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $2,886.80. From the judgment which followed, and from the order denying defendants a new trial, they prosecute these appeals.

The complaint alleged that the defendant Johnson, as tax collector, on and after the first day of October, 1894, and before the seventh day of January, 1895, collected and received the sum of $132,884.69, which he should have paid into the treasury of the county on or before the seventh day of January, 1895, “but that he did not pay prior to the seventh day of January, 1895, and has not since, of the moneys aforesaid, paid into the treasury of said county any other or greater sum than $129,-897.69.

Plaintiff’s case rested mainly upon the testimony of the county treasurer, who said that upon the eighteenth day of December, Mr. Hardy, the deputy tax collector, had demanded of him a…