48 FEDERAL REPORTER.
Uurrno Srsrns v. Moncm and others.
(District Court, S. D. New York. June, 1886.)
1. Orrrcrsr. BOND—SURETIES—DISBURSING OFFICERS—SPECIFIC Arrnomumoxs
—UNAUTHORIZED PAYMENTS—MINGLING Accounrs-Dnmrs Csncmnmn.
Disbursing oflicers of the treasury are not authorized to draw, nor the treas-
urer to pay, from the specinc appropriations, any other sums than those au-
thorized by law onaccount of the appropriations respectively.
2. SAME-CASE Buren.
M. was disbursing ofiicer, as chief of the bureau of accounts, in the depart-
ment of state. As such, he gave a bond, with the defendants as sureties, for
the faithful discharge of his duties. Moneys for specific purposes, appropri-
ated by congress, were placed to his credit by the treasurer, during several
years. M., uring the same time, received considerable moneys monthly for
issuing passports, which was not a part of his oiiicial duty as disbursing of-
ncer, and for which the sureties were not liable. M. was in the habit of using
current receipts from passport moneys to pay current claims upon his treas-
ury account, and at the end of the month he drew upon his treasury account
in order to pay to the treasury the amounts due to the government for
passport moneys. Upon M.’s death, in January, 1884, his treasury account
was found about $17,000 short, and during the period covered by these ac-
counts he had drawn from it about $29,000 for paying into the treasury his
passport moneys. Each draft, and a letter accompanying it, stated that pur-
pose, and the treasurer accordingly debited the apépropriations account, and
credited the same to M. in the passport account. old, that the drafts on the
appropriations account to pay passport moneys were unauthorized, illegal, and
Y void; and no change in the actual money in the treasury appearing, hold, that
the debits charge against the appropriations account were unauthorized;
that the sureties were entitled to have them canceled, and the accounts being
readjusted accordingly, and there being no dencit in the appropriations ac-
count, a verdict was directed for the defendants
Suit on an Official Bond.
G. E. P. Howard, Asst. U. S. Atty., for plaintiff.
Geo. Bliss, Jr., for defendants.
In directing a verdict for the defendants, the court ruled substan-
tially as follows:
_ Bnown, J. The defendants in this action, who are the sureties in
Mr. Morgan’s bond for "the faithful discharge of his duties," are an--
. swerable only for his acts as a disbursing agent, as chief of the bureau
of accounts in the department of state. Besides performing this duty,
Mr. Morgan, at the same time, by the direction of the secretary of
state, received moneys for the issuing of passports, to the amount of
from eleven to fifteen hundred dollars per month. His acts in the
latter capacity, it is conceded, were independent of his duties as dis-.
bursing clerk, and the sureties in his bond are in no way answerable
for any misappropriation of the passport moneys.
As disbursing clerk, he had charge of, and disbursed, certain funds.
appropriated by congress, from time to time, for specific purposes.
For the amounts thus appropriated warrants were drawn by the sec-
retary of the treasury upon the treasurer of the United States, di-
. recting that the amounts appropriated on account of these particu-
lar funds be placed to the credit of Mr. Morgan, for that purpose, on