Bond (law)

“ It is true, that the bottomry bond was taken for a larger amount; but that furnishes no ground of objection to the bond, except for the surplus; for a bottomry bond may be good in part, and bad in part; and it will be upheld by courts of admiralty, as a lien to the extent to which it is valid; as such courts, in the exercise of their jurisdiction, are not governed by the strict rules of the common law, but act upon enlarged principles of equity. ”

“ It is undoubtedly true, as words of severalty are not employed, that a joint bond is a compliance with the law, but it by no means follows that a joint and several obligation is not an equal compliance with its terms. ”

“ It was a voluntary bond, and was not coerced from the obligor. He was at liberty to accept or refuse the office; his sureties were at liberty to execute the bond or to refuse. Even if it is not a bond under the law, it is good and valid as a voluntary obligation.
The replication states that the bond was executed under the belief that it was a compliance with the law, and that as such it was received by the United States. This was voluntary. It has been decided that the United States may take a voluntary bond. ”

“ It is true that in England and law is, that a bond delivered in blank, as it respects the payee, is void, and the blank incapable of being filled up by the holder, either upon an implied or express parol authority from the maker. ”

“ When an obligee takes a joint and several bond, he has nothing to ask of equity; his remedy is wholly at law. If he elects to take a joint judgment, he voluntarily repudiates the several contract, and is certainly in no better situation than if he had originally taken a joint security only; equity gives relief, not on the bond, for that is complete at law, but on the moral obligation antecedent to the bond, when the creditor could have had no remedy at law. ”

“ Thus money due on a bond is a chose in action; for a property in the debt vests at the time of forfeiture mentioned in the obligation, but there is no possession till recovered by course of law. If a man promises, or covenants with me, to do any act, and fails in it, whereby I suffer damage ”

“ But we are inclined to the opinion-although uninformed upon the subject by any direct decision of the Supreme Court of the State to which our attention has been called-that municipal bonds and coupons were regarded by the framers both of the revision of 1849 and that of 1858, as, alike, sealed instruments to which the limitation of twenty years was applicable. The word 'bond' at common law (and even now as a general rule) imports a sealed instrument. ”

“ An instrument executed and delivered by the obligor, signed and sealed by him, not legally assignable in any but the one way provided by the act of 1715, that is, under the hand and seal of the obligee, before two credible witnesses, and when assigned, subject to all the equities then existing between the original parties:-such is a bond in law, in equity, and in the popular sense of the word. ”

“ The township had authority by law to issue its bonds by way of donation to a railroad. It did issue its bonds. They got into circulation as commercial securities, and were purchased by the plaintiff. All the plaintiff had to do in case of non-payment was simply to sue on the bonds. If there was any defence to them by reason of want of performance of any of the requisites necessary to give them validity, or for any other cause, it was for the defendant to show it. A bond, especially a negotiable bond, is a prima facie obligation of the obligor, if he has capacity to make it ”

“ The first question, then, arises as to the correctness of the position assumed by the defendant, that the bonds are nullities, and cannot be sued upon at law by the obligees or their assignees.
It is a principle of the common law, that no one can be both obligor and obligee in the same bond. He cannot sue himself, and the instrument is a nullity. ”

“ The Municipal Bond Cases.—There is one class of cases resulting from the doctrine that the law of remedy constitutes a part of the obligation of a contract to which a special word is due. This comprises cases in which the contracts involved were municipal bonds. While a city is from one point of view but an emanation from the government's sovereignty and an agent thereof, when it borrows money it is held to be acting in a corporate or private capacity, and so to be suable on its contracts. ”

“ It will be discovered, by reference to dates, that the payments here made preceded the institution of the suit, and, although made by the sureties, they were made severally, for any thing that appears to the contrary from the verdict. Technically, then, the judgment to be entered would have been a judgment for the penalty of the bond, and, in applying the partial payment, the Court would have been governed by those principles which have been transferred in practice from the Courts of equity to the Courts of law, in deciding on what terms a party shall be released from the penalty of his bond. ”

“ That sufficient facts are set forth in the pleas to justify a non-compliance with the terms prescribed in the condition.
1. At common law the bond is void. No bond is valid which is given to the king by an officer for the faithful performance of his duties as an officer. 5 Com. Dig. 219, 207. If the bond is made valid by the statute, it must be by its conformity to the requisitions of the statute. But this bond does not in any part of it purport to be a statutory bond. It does not recite that Deblois was a purser ”

“ The defendants contend that the bonds were given without any actual consideration; the President having, as they allege, no authority to dispose of the lands.
The first question is, Can this point be raised on the record as it stands? The declaration does not state of whom the purchase was made, or by what authority the sale took place. Until it otherwise appears, it must be presumed that it was made by virtue of a lawful authority. A bond under seal imports a consideration without its being expressed; and a want or failure of consideration is not sufficient at law to avoid a specialty. ”

“ Linn
This case comes from the circuit court of the United States for the state of Illinois, on a certificate of division of opinion upon the following points: 1st. Whether the obligation set out in the second and third counts in the declaration, being without seal, is a bond within the act of congress. 2d. Whether such instrument is good at common law.
Upon the first point, no doubt can exist. There being no seal to the instrument, it is not a bond. ”

“ If a bond, with surety required by law of an officer, be signed and sealed by the parties who are named as obligors to the United States, and sent by mail, or by private conveyance, to the proper department, and be sued upon by the United States, such circumstances must be prim a facie evidence of delivery ”

“ Whatever right of action existed in virtue of the bond, passed by the operation of the law of Virginia directly to the person for whose benefit it was given, through the conduit appointed for that purpose. ”

“ In the United States one cannot sell himself as a peon or slave -- the law is fixed and
established to protect the weak-minded, the poor, the miserable. Men will sometimes sell
themselves for a meal of victuals or contract with another who acts as surety on his [sic] bond to
work out the amount of the bond upon his [sic] release from jail. Any such contract is
positively null and void and the procuring and causing of such contract to be made violates
these statutes. ”

“ In old days, when a bond was forfeit, the whole penalty was recoverable at law and payment post diem could not be pleaded to an action on it, but the court of chancery early interposed to prevent oppression. It held the penalty of a bond to be the form, not the substance of it, a pledge merely to secure repayment of the sum bona fide advanced, and would not permit a man to take more than in conscience he ought, i.e. ”

“ In this act it was provided that the purchase money might 'be discharged in any of the outstanding legal bonds of the state;' and that, upon the sale of any of the franchises of either of the companies, 'all rights, privileges, and immunities appertaining to the franchises so sold under its act of incorporation and the amendments thereto, and the general improvement law of the state and acts amendatory thereof, shall be transferred to and vest in such purchaser ”

“ If it was intended by congress to enlarge the scope of the section so as to include other bonds than those given for duties, (as seems to be the necessary inference from the language,) still, it is restricted to 'bonds:' the words are 'whenever the principal in any bond given to the United States is insolvent,' etc., and any 'surety on the bond' pays the money due upon 'such bond,' such surety shall have the like priority, etc., and may bring and maintain a suit upon 'the bond' in his own name, etc. ”

“ All who bind themselves in a bond, are equally obligors; and there are many cases, in the construction of bonds, where the letter of the condition has been departed from, to carry into effect the intention of the parties. And it is a rule in the construction of all deeds, that they are to be construed most strictly against those who make them, and most favorably for those for whose benefit they are made, as every contract is. ”

“ Where the bond is taken between individuals, under no restraint as to power to make the contract, no matter how voluntary, there must still be an officer having power to take voluntary bonds for the United States ”

“ I will provide the money of which you stand in need, will take a bond from you for it, which I am not to enforce against you, unless you should fall into misfortune, and then only, should I see fit to do so, for the benefit of yourself or your family, if you will give me an absolute conveyance of the property.' The conveyance is given, the bond is taken, and now it is said the transaction was intended to be an absolute sale, and not a security for a loan. We do not think that the connexion between the bond and the deed can be dismembered. ”

“ And it has been held that the obligation involved in the condition of a bond is not such a promise as is available to any one, not the obligee of the bond. “But it is not every promise made by one to another, from the performance of which a benefit may ensue to a third, which gives a right of action to such third person; he being neither privy to the contract nor to the consideration, the contract must be made for his benefit, as its object, and he must be the party intended to be benefited.” ”

“ In order that such claims may be satisfied, the United States has made provision for their protection by bonds upon which persons may recover damages, so that those who furnish property of which the government receives the benefit shall not entail a loss by so doing. Read in the light of this policy, so manifestly just and proper, and the requirements of this contract and bond, we think that the government did not intend that the lien which it reserved for itself should be superior to that of contractors for labor and material who had contributed to the work. ”

“ No sane person would have bought a bond with such an obligation resting upon him whenever he called for payment of principal or interest. If such was the duty of the holder, it was always his duty. It could not be performed once for all. ”

“ So much stress has, in almost every case, been laid upon the bond as forming, either directly or indirectly, the basis of a new rule of responsibility, that it seems especially important to ascertain what are the legal obligations that spring from such an instrument. ”

“ And so the act of congress says, if you wish to appeal this case to another court and go through another trial, instead of appointing a receiver to take possession, we will require of you a bond to secure all damages suffered by the appellee by reason of the delay; and as he is entitled to have the land sold at once for his debt, or to have possession delivered so that rents and profits may be appropriated where they ought to go, you can only suspend the operation of the decree by giving such a bond. ”

“ It is clearly a part of the duty of the master to approve such bonds. The bond is an official one, to be filed in court, not kept by the receiver. The receiver is to act only on such a bond as the proper officer of the court shall have approved. It is the duty of the receiver not to surrender the property till such a bond, properly approved, be filed. The order does not give the receiver the right, nor throw on them the duty of approving the bond. ”

“ Whenever a man makes a proposal to carry the mail for four years on a certain route, that proposal must be accompanied with a bond in a certain amount, and certain men must sign that bond as sureties, and then a certain postmaster must certify to the solvency of the sureties, the sureties having made oath as to the value of their property. Now, understand that perfectly. It is not the bond that a man gives after his bid has been accepted. It is a bond that he gives to show that his bid is in good faith. ”

“ There a court of equity will enforce the obligation against the representatives of the deceased obligor, although the bond be joint and not several, on the ground that the lending to both creates a moral obligation in both to pay, and that the reasonable presumption is the parties intended their contract to be joint and several, but through fraud, ignorance, mistake, or want of skill, failed to accomplish their object. ”

“ Although the adoption of state procedure is not obligatory upon the Federal courts when sitting in equity, they have frequently rendered summary judgment against sureties on appeal bonds. See cases in the margin. [2] Some of the district courts, by formal rule of court require the bond to contain an express agreement that the court may, upon notice to the sureties, proceed summarily against them in the original action or suit. ”