Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/655

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

UNITED 8TATE3 W. DE VISSER. 643 �5. SURETY — RiGHTB DbFINED. �A surety's ordinary right to pay the debt and take possession of the goods at the end of three years, ia, theref ore, eut o2 by the act, and his right to pay any deflcit, aud proceed for indemnity against his principal, is also suspended until after the sale. �6. Rbmedt bt Suit upon the Bond. �The prooeeding by abandonment and sale is a substitute for the ordinary remedy upon the bond after the lapse of three years. Immediate suit by the government upon the bond, before sale, vould involve such inconsistencies that the common-law remedy must be deemed suspended by necessary implica- tion until after the sale of the goods. �7. Right of Paymbnt and Subrogation— Whbn Oui Opf. �Until after such sale the surety in a warehouse bond has at no time any right of payment, of subrogation, or suit for indemnity against his principal, and his risk continues necessarily till that time. As the statute of 1861 forms in legal eitect a part of the bond for the purpose of cutting ofE his ordinary right of payment and subrogation, and of terminating his risk at the end of three years, it must also be held to form a part of the contract for the purpose of flxing the time when the suspension of his ordinary rights shall cease. �8. Contracts of Suretibs, how Interprbtbd. �Contracts of sureties are interpreted strictissimi juris as respects the subject- matter or the duration of their risk, and any change in either, without the sureties' assent, operates as a discharge. �9. Sale of Abandoned, Goods. �The statute of 1861 direoting a sale according to the prescribed regulations of the treasury department, the regulations so established providing for quar- terly sales, aud the sale of the abandoned goods at the next sale after three years, are all material parts of the surety's contract, because they fix and deter- mine the duration of his risk. �10. SaME — PoSTPONBkENT— SURBTY DiSCHARGED. �Where, upon such goods being adverlised for sale at a regular quarter-day, pursuant to the statute and regulations, the secretary of the treasury, at the request of a purchaser of the goods in bond, intervened by order, and directing a postponement of the sale until further orders without the surety's consent, Iteld, that the latter was discharged. Semble mere delay by the offlcers of the government in selling as directed would not discharge a surety, the govern- ment not being answerable for mere laches of its offlcers. �11. Bamb — Effbct of Mbrb Delay. �Mere delay by a crediter in disposing of his securities, unless specially re- quested by the surety to proceed, is no defence; if so requested, it is a defence only to the extent of the damages proved. �12. Same — Importer not Discharged by Postponement. �The importer being liable as principal, and not being in the situation of a surety having a right of indemnity against any other principal, held not dis- charged by the postponement of the sale. �S. L. Woodford and W. G. Wallace, for plaintiff. �S. A. Blatchford and Dudley Phelps, for defendants. �Beown, D. J. The above actions are brought to recover duties upon a warehouse bond executed on Juue 26, 1871, by Simon De Visser, as principal, and L. Turnure, as surety. The bond recites ��� �