Authority to issue subpoenas; punishment for contempt for refusal to obey

Authority is conferred upon the official or county or municipal authority having jurisdiction in the matter to issue subpoenas and to compel the attendance of witnesses and production of books and documents on behalf of any party. If any person shall disobey any such subpoena or order to produce, the official or county or municipal authority shall certify the refusal to the judge of the superior court of the county where the hearing is held, who shall punish the offender as for contempt of the superior court. (Ga. L. 1933, p. 78, § 9d; Code 1933, § 89-821; Ga. L. 1990, p. 8, § 45.) 179 45-8-24 PUBLIC OFFICERS & EMPLOYEES 45-8-25 45-8-24. Joinder of parties in proceedings for accounting; power of authorities to determine liability. In any proceeding for accounting under this chapter, there may be joined originally or by amendment, either before or after appeal, all such officers, depositories, banks, and securities on bonds of any of them as shall be necessary or proper for the full determination of any matter in controversy, and especially, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, for determining the respective liabilities as between an officer and some other officer, between an officer and a bank or depository, between them or any of them and the sureties of any of them, or between sureties of any of them. The proper authority or any court which shall have acquired jurisdiction in any proceeding for accounting by appeal or otherwise shall have the jurisdiction to determine completely the respective liabilities of the parties as among themselves, as well as the liability of any officer, bank, or depository and the sureties, to the public body or bodies involved. The jurisdiction given in this chapter shall extend not only to the compelling of an officer and his sureties to account for taxes or other public money which he has in fact collected, but for money which it was his duty to collect and which, in the exercise of good faith and ordinary diligence, he should have collected; and such jurisdiction may be exercised against any public officer who has received or collected the money of any public body, whether or not it was a part of his official duty to receive it or collect it. (Ga. L. 1933, p. 78, § 9i; Code 1933, § 89-826.) 45-8-25. Issuance of execution against defaulting officer, bank, depository, or surety; enforcement; proceedings to arrest enforcement; burden of proof at trial; parties; effect of admission of correctness by defendant in execution. The official or county or municipal authority having jurisdiction to cite for accounting may, without issuing or serving a citation or notice, issue or cause to be issued an execution against any defaulting collecting officer, officer to hold public funds, or any bank or depository in which public funds have been deposited and the sureties on the bonds of any of them for default as to any of the matters as to which such officer, bank, depository, or surety might be cited, and for the amount of the loss sustained by the public body or public bodies alleged in such execution to be sustained through such default. Such execution shall be prima-facie evidence of the facts therein recited, including the amount of loss sustained, and shall be enforceable as an execution for said amount; provided, however, that the enforcement of such execution may be arrested by proceedings in equity, or, after levy, by affidavit of illegality in which the defendant in fi. fa. whose property has been 180 45-8-26 levied on shall deny liability for the amount set out in such execution or some part thereof. The affidavit of illegality shall be returned by the levying officer to the superior court of the county in which the alleged defaulting officer resides. On the trial of the case, whether in equity or on affidavit of illegality, the burden of proof shall be on the official or authority issuing the execution. Any other person, corporation, or public body at interest may on his or its own motion or on motion of either party to the cause be made a party thereto and be bound by the final judgment. Such an execution shall become final process against any defendant in execution named therein who shall endorse thereon in writing his admission of the correctness of the same and an agreement that the same shall proceed against him as final process, but such admission shall not be binding on anyone except the person or corporation signing the same. (Ga. L. 1933, p. 78, § 9g; Code 1933, § 89-824; Ga. L. 1990, p. 8, § 45.)