by John Marshall Harlan

“ Has a clerk of a circuit court of the United States authority to receive money brought into court by a private suitor, and is he responsible upon his bond if he does not deposit it as required by statute and appropriates it to his own use? Is the bond of the clerk for the protection of private suitors, as well as of the United States? Has a private suitor the right, without express statutory authority, to sue on the bond of the clerk in the name of the United States for his benefit? ”

“ But the propriety of bringing such suit was a subject on which the obligees had themselves a right to judge. If the proprietors of one prize ticket had an interest in this bond, the proprietors of every other prize ticket had the same interest; and it could not be in the power of the first bold adventurer who should seize and sue upon it, to appropriate it to his own use, and to force the obligees to appear in court as plaintiffs against their own will. No person who is not the proprietor of an obligation can have a legal right to put it in suit, unless such right be given by the legislature ”

“ They are also designed to secure the faithful performance of official duties, in the discharge of which individuals and corporations have a deep interest, and, therefore, they should have the privilege of suing [on] such bonds for injuries sustained by them, through the negligence and malconduct of the officers. ”