The Treasurer's Escaped Liability
A landmark state supreme court decision saves King County bondsmen from paying for a massive treasury shortage.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The supreme court today decided the case of the County of King vs. Elisna P. Ferry and others, a suit to recover from the sureties of George D. Hill, formerly treasurer of King county, the amount of the shortage in such treasurer's office. The court decides that the erasure of the name of H. L. Yesler, who had signed the bond as a surety, and the substitution therefor of the name of Gay C. Phinney, did not release the other sureties. The court, however, turns upon another point: the treasurer's term of office was extended by legislative enactment, and the court decides that Hill's bondsmen were not sureties for him after the expiration of the original term for which they had obligated themselves. Consequently, the sureties are not responsible for the $22,064.51 deficiency incurred after that date.
“No consideration of the interests of the public will justify a court in extending by construction the obligation of a citizen under his contract beyond the scope of its rational import.”
This case highlights the fragility of public trust in local government finance during the late 19th century, when personal bonds were the primary insurance against official corruption. It reflects a time when the legal lines between personal liability and public institutional responsibility were being drawn by the young state's highest court.
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