Texas Attorney General Opinion: H-360 Page: 3 of 4
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The Honorable Jim Sharon Bearden page 3 (H-360)
correct itemized statement of such deposit, on
what account received, and the disposition made
of the same. When his term of office expires,
such officer shall turn over to his successor all
of such trust funds and other property and the
record book thereof, taking his receipt therefore.
This article shall not exempt any officer or his
surety from any liability on his official bond for
any neglect or other default in regard to said
property.
In 47 TEX. JUR. 2d, Public Officers, Sec. 136, p. 175, it says:
An officer who is the custodian of public money does
not occupy the position of a mere bailee for hire, who
is responsible only for such care of the money as a
prudent man would take of his own; nor is he a "debtor"
to the county within the ordinary meaning of the term,
since if he were, the money would be his property and
he could not be guilty of misapplying it as the offense
is defined in the Penal Code. He is bound to account
for and pay over the money to the person entitled, less
his commissions, or his sureties must pay it for him;
and neither he nor his sureties are relieved from
liability by the fact that the money was stolen without
his fault .
You have also cited to us Harllee v. State, 18 S. W. 2d 1091 (Tex. Civ.
App. --Waco 1929), in which the court said that the Clerk of the district
court and his sureties were liable for money deposited in the registry of
the court for minors, notwithstanding the unauthorized attempt to pay the
miinor's father, and La@tham v. Dies, 98 S. W. 897 (Tex. Civ. App. 1907)
a suit in which the district clerk had deposited money in a safe that was
supposed to be burglar-proof. Burglars later proved that his was not the
case and the court held the district clerk liable.p. 1694
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: H-360, text, July 30, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth270885/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.