Blomquist

The plaintiff in error, as receiver of the State Bank of Belt, Mont., brought this action on a fidelity bond given by the defendant to protect the bank against dishonesty on the part of one L. B. Lockhart, president of the bank. Jury trial was duly waived in writing, and upon hearing the evidence the court found for the defendant and dismissed the action.

The bond was given on May 9, 1921, and by its terms the suretyship was to “end with the date of the discovery by the employer [bank] * * * of dishonesty on the part of the employee [Lockhart].” The bank failed on October 11, 1922. Nearly all of the alleged acts of dishonesty on account of which plaintiff sought to recover were committed in 1922, the earliest being on December 5, 1921. The defense sustained by the court was that on August 25, 1921, Lockhart misapplied and dishonestly appropriated to his own use $500 of the bank’s funds, that the bank directors had full knowledge of the misapplication not later than September 21, 1921, and that, notwithstanding such knowledge, they neither discharged Lockhart nor notified the defendant.

We need not discuss the pertinent principles of law, for the reason that plaintiff in error…