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21 Tex. 588

Burnett v. Henderson

Texas Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1858

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1858-07-01

Tried below before Hon. B. H. Martin. Suit upon the official bond of a tax collector, charging that he had failed to pay over money, collected as taxes, for the year 1844, On the trial, the appellee read in evidence the bond of the appellant and his sureties, and also a statement of the account of the appellant, as tax collector for Houston county, for direct taxes, collected by him for the year 1848, in which he was charged with a balance actually due of $775 22, signed Jas.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently June 1931

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1858-07-01

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Wheeleb, J.

¶1The Court did not err in overruling’ the demurrer. The Court was bound judicially to know that the tax collector, duly appointed, could be none other than the Sheriff. (Act of June 16th, 1840, Hart. Dig. p. 901.) The bond is set out and made a part of the petition : and it recites the official character of the defendant, and he and his sureties are thereby estopped from denying it. • (Borden v. Houston, 2 Tex. R. 594.) It was unnecessary to offer other evidence of his official character, and consequently it was unnecessary to aver it with greater particularity. The objection that suit on the bond was improperly brought in the name of the Governor of the State, is answered by the 2nd Section of the Schedule of the State Constitution, which expressly authorizes the suit to be brought in the name of the Governor.

¶2There is nothing in the objection that the bond having been given in the form prescribed by the Act of 1840, (Hart. Dig. Art. 3000,) did not create an obligation on the principal obligor to account for the taxes collected under subsequent amendatory laws. It bound him “ well and truly to perform the *590duties required of and incumbent upon Mm as collector of taxes,” for that county. And that is sufficiently comprehensive to hold him accountable for all the taxes collected by him while in that office. (Bell v. McDonald, 9 Tex. R. 378.)

¶3The liability to pay interest upon the money collected and retained by him, is not an open question. (Borden v. Houston, 2 Tex. R. 594.) But there is a graver objection to the judgment. The petition charges the principal defendant with having collected and failed to pay over $1750 45-100, the amount of the taxes assessed for the year 1844. The evidence admitted, over the defendant’s objection, was that he had failed to account for a part of $1249 2-100, the amount of the assessment for the year 1843 ; and for the latter the judgment was rendered. The defendant was thus called upon by the petition to account for the taxes assessed for the year 1844, and he is surprised by evidence of the amount due for the assessment of the preceding year, 1843, and is adjudged to pay upon the assessment for that year. We think it cannot be doubted that this was a fatal variance between the allegations and the proof. And it therefore becomes unnecessary to revise the other rulings of the Court complained of.

¶4The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

¶5Reversed and remanded.

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