Title 8, Public Officers And Employees

The respective counties shall pay the premiums for such bonds and the registration fees.

Sections 8-19-101 – 8-19-106 are cumulative and supplemental to all existing laws.

No county official shall sign as surety an official bond for any other county official; provided, that when any person has signed as surety any bond of any county official, and is thereafter elected to or appointed to fill any public office, such official shall not be deemed to h…

It is unlawful for any person, whose duty it now is or may hereafter be to approve any official bond, to approve the bond of any county official that has been signed as surety by any other county official.

A violation of §§ 8-19-108 and 8-19-109 is a Class C misdemeanor.

(a) The bonds of all public officers required by law to give bond shall, unless it is otherwise provided, be made payable to the state, with such sureties as the officer or court required to approve the same is satisfied are sufficient, and conditioned, in all cases in which a di…

The bond of any public officer which is not in the penalty, payable or conditioned as prescribed by law, shall not be approved, and the officer approving thereof, under such circumstances, not only neglects such officer's duty, but subjects the officer and the officer's sureties …

The approval of all official bonds shall be in writing, endorsed on the bond, and shall show the day and year on which they were approved, and be signed by the approving officer, or authenticated as the act of the court, as the case may be.

No officer with whom any official bond is required to be filed shall allow the same to be filed in such officer's office unless the approval of the proper officer or court appear thereon, endorsed according to §§ 8-19-111 — 8-19-115.

Official bonds, including blanket bonds, and each rider or attachment thereto, required by law to be filed in the office of the county clerk or secretary of state, must be filed within thirty (30) days after the election or appointment of the person named in the bond, rider, or a…

Every officer in whose office the official bond of any public officer is filed shall endorse thereon the day and year on which it was filed, and sign such officer's name to the endorsement, and, on failure so to do, commits a Class C misdemeanor.

An officer required by law to give an official bond who fails to execute the bond when the bond is available and transmit the bond to the proper officer for approval within thirty (30) days from the time the bond becomes available for execution, forfeits the office and a vacancy …

Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, an official bond as required by law for a constable shall be a surety bond.

No bond required by this chapter shall be renewed upon its expiration or in the event of the reappointment or re-election of any officer or employee to a position for which a bond is required, but a new bond shall be furnished.

The judges of the chancery and circuit courts, and of other courts of record except the supreme court, court of appeals, and court of criminal appeals, at the first term after the election, or at the term of the appointment of the clerks, shall examine and attest the bonds by law…

If, at the expiration of four (4) months after a general election, or an appointment of clerks, such bonds have not been received by the office of the county clerk, the office of the county clerk shall forthwith notify the judges of the fact. If the bond from any cause was not ta…

Upon the filing of a complaint alleging the failure of a county officer or constable to enter into an official bond as required by law, the clerk of the circuit court, or the clerk and master of the chancery court having jurisdiction shall issue a summons which shall be served, t…

If, upon service and return of the summons and after a hearing, the circuit or chancery court finds that the county officer or constable failed or refused to enter into an official bond as required by law, the court shall enter a judgment declaring the office vacant, and the vaca…

The person selected according to law to fill the office declared vacant pursuant to § 8-19-206 shall enter into an official bond as required by law. The procedure prescribed by §§ 8-19-205, 8-19-206, and this section may be repeated as often as necessary, but only until the court…

The bonds of the revenue officers, shall within ten (10) days after the same have been examined or taken, and after they shall have been attested, recorded and certified, according to law, be filed in the office of the county clerk for safekeeping.

(1) Every official bond executed under this code is obligatory on the principal and sureties thereon:(1) For any breach of the condition during the time the officer continues in office or in the discharge of any of the duties of such office;(2) For the faithful discharge of the d…

Whenever any officer, required by law to give an official bond, acts under a bond which is not in the penalty, payable, or conditioned as prescribed by law, or is otherwise defective, such bond is not void, but stands in the place of the official bond, subject, on its condition b…

If any officer or other person, as hereinafter provided, who is required by law or in the course of judicial proceedings to give bond for the performance of an act or the discharge of duty, receives money or property upon the faith of such bond, such officer and the officer's sur…

Official bonds are not discharged by a single recovery, but proceedings may, from time to time, be instituted thereon by any person aggrieved, without assignment, until the whole penalty is exhausted.

Sureties on the bonds of public officials shall be liable for the principal sum in default and covered by the bond and for interest thereon, at the rate of ten percent (10%) per annum for the period of delinquency, and not otherwise.

Sections 8-19-111 – 8-19-119 and 8-19-301 – 8-19-307 apply to the official bonds of all public officers of this state whose office may be established hereafter, unless the contrary be expressly provided.

Sections 8-19-302 – 8-19-304 and 8-19-306 apply to the bonds of executors, administrators, guardians, special commissioners, receivers, successor custodians, and others required by law or in the course of judicial proceedings to execute bonds.

(1) All public officers, except those included within the blanket surety bond required by § 4-4-108, who are compelled to give official bonds may be required, by the court or officer whose duty it is to take or approve such bonds, to give additional sureties or new bonds in the f…

The requisition to give additional bonds shall, in all cases, be in writing, and signed by the officer making it; shall state the day and place, when and where the officer cited shall appear and give such bond; and a copy thereof shall be personally served on such officer before …

Such additional bond shall be in the same penalty, conditioned, approved, and filed in the same office, as the first official bond, and under like penalties in case of failure.

Such officer shall give the additional bond within ten (10) days after the day specified in such requisition, and, failing so to do, the officer vacates the office; and the officer making the requisition shall at once certify the fact to the appointing power, by whom the vacancy …

From the time of its approval, every such additional bond shall be of like force and obligation, and subject to the same remedies as the first official bond.

In no case provided for in any of §§ 8-19-402 – 8-19-406 are any of the official bonds, previously executed, discharged; but each remains of the same force and obligation as if the additional bonds had not been given; and any person aggrieved may have a remedy, upon either or all…

The sureties on either bond, who have been compelled to make any payments thereon for the principal obligor, have the same remedies against the sureties on all the bonds, executed at the time of the default, as cosureties on the same bond have against each other, the damages bein…

Any of the sureties upon the official bond of a public officer who believes that such surety is in danger of suffering by reason of such suretyship, and desires to be relieved therefrom, may give notice, in writing, to such officer to appear before the court or officer whose duty…

The surety shall give the principal at least five (5) days' notice of the application, at the expiration of which time, or in such time as the court or officer may allow, not exceeding ten (10) days thereafter, new bonds shall be given.

If the new bond is not given as required, the office of the principal shall be declared vacant by order to that effect, and notice given, when necessary, to the appointing power.

When an officer consents in any case, upon public or private application of any of such officer's sureties, to give a new bond, it may be taken without further proceedings, with the same effect as if executed upon order.

On the execution of the additional bond provided for in §§ 8-19-409 — 8-19-412, it shall be approved and filed in the same way and under like penalties as the original bond, together with the notice and order under which it was given.

On the execution, approval and filing of such additional bond, the applicant sureties are exonerated from all liability on the bond upon which the application was made, for any breach thereof accruing subsequent to the approval of such additional bond.

Every such additional bond, approved and filed as provided in §§ 8-19-409 – 8-19-419, is binding on the obligors from the time of its approval, and subjects them to the same liabilities, proceedings, and remedies as are provided in relation to the first official bond of such offi…

The exoneration of the applicant sureties does not affect the previous liability of any of the obligors in the original bond; nor are any of the obligors who have not joined in such application discharged from any liability accruing after the filing of such additional bond, and t…

Whenever the sureties on either bond, in such cases, have made any payments thereon on account of their principal, they are entitled to the same remedies and recoveries against the sureties in all the bonds executed at the time of default as provided in § 8-19-408.

Sureties of deputy officers may in like manner be released by notice to their principal to appear before the officer or court taking and approving such bonds, upon similar proceedings.

The costs of the application will be paid by the principal, and judgment may be given and execution issued for such costs.

(a) Any official of any agency of the state having knowledge that a theft, forgery, credit card fraud, or any other act of unlawful or unauthorized taking, or abuse of, public money, property, or services, or other shortages of public funds has occurred shall report the informati…