§ 7.021.Suit on Official Bonds

A procedural device for a bond that protects many people at once.

Suit may be brought in the name of this state alone on an official bond for the benefit of all the parties entitled to recover on the bond where two conditions hold.

The bond is made payable to this state or to an officer of this state, and a recovery on the bond is authorized by or would inure to the benefit of parties other than this state.

An official bond is the security a public officer posts — a sheriff, a clerk, a notary — answering for faithful performance of the office. It protects the state and every private person the officer might injure.

The difficulty this section solves is one of parties. A bond payable to the state, on which private individuals are entitled to recover, raises the question who may sue on it. The answer here is the state, alone, for everyone.

"In the name of this state alone" is the operative permission. The beneficiaries need not be joined, so a single action can resolve claims against the bond without assembling everyone with an interest in it.

"For the benefit of all the parties entitled to recover" is the counterweight. The state is suing as a representative rather than for itself, and the recovery answers to those entitled to it.

The second condition is what makes the device necessary. Where only the state could recover, an ordinary suit would do; this exists for the bond on which others have claims.

The section is permissive, not exclusive. It says suit may be brought this way, leaving whatever other routes exist untouched.