United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Barrett
United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Barrett
Opinion of the Court
Affirming.
A. Lee Barrett and J. D. Barrett’s administrator sued Ben F. Wilson in the Martin circuit court to recover the value of certain timber cut and removed from the lands of A. Lee and J. D. Barrett. Upon the institution of the action an attachment was sued out and levied upon certain timber. To secure the release of the property attached, Wilson and appellant, United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, executed to the plaintiffs a bond by which they undertook that Ben F. Wilson would perform the judgment of the court in that action. The attachment was sustained and judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiffs for $464.74, with interest thereon from May 22d, 1907, and costs. An appeal was taken to this court, and in an opinion delivered January 29th, 1909, the judgment of the lower court was affirmed. (Wilson v. Barrett, et al., 115 S. W. 812.) The mandate of this court was issued on April 20th, 1909, and was filed in the clerk’s office of the Martin circuit court on June 7th, 1909. On June 8th an execution was issued against Ben F. Wilson and placed in the hands of the sheriff of Martin county. On July 22d, 1909, this execution was returned “no'property found.”
After setting forth the foregoing facts and charging that no part of the judgment had ever been paid, except the sum of $300, paid October 16th, 1909, and that neither Ben F. Wilson nor any one for him had ever performed the judgment of the court, the appellees, A. Lee Barrett and J. I). Barrett’s administrator, brought this action against appellant to recoyer on the bond in question. To this petition appellant interposed a demurrer, which was overruled: Appellant then filed an answer, in which it denied that it ha.d broken the covenant of the bond by not paving, or causing Wilson to pay, the judgment, and then interposed the defense that $300 on the judgment had been paid and that this was all that was due A. Lee Barrett; that on November 9th, 1909, John Meade had filed a suit against William Damron, administrator of the estate of J. D. Barrett, deceased, for the sum of $202.20, and interest and costs, before W. T. Parsley, a justice of the peace of Wayne county, West Virginia; that an attachment was sued out in said case against the property of the estate of J. D. Barrett, and that Ben F. Wilson was named as garnishee therein; that said attachment was
The court did not err in overruling appellant’s demurrer to the petition on the ground that the petition did not in terms allege that the condition of the bond sued on had been violated. The petition did set forth the fact that the judgment was obtained, that by the bond appellant undertook that Wilson would satisfy the judgment and the fact that neither Wilson, nor any one for him, had ever paid the judgment. These allegations were sufficient to show a breach of the covenant without alleging in terms that the condition of the bond was violated.
The only other question to be determined is the validity of the defense interposed to be determined by the answer. While the answer as'serts that the condition of the bond had not been violated, it admits that the judg
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.