Denison, 100631 PAAGO, AGO 28

• Case Date: October 06, 1931
• Court: Pennsylvania

Honorable William M. Denison, AGO 28 Opinion No. 28 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinions Of The Attorney General October 6, 1931          School Treasurers—School Depositories—Bonds-Nature of Security Required —School Code, Sections 326 and 509.          The bonds required by school treasurers and school depositories by Sections 326 and 509 of the School Code of May 18, 1911, P. L. 309, may be bonds with individual or corporate sureties.          Honorable William M. Denison,          Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction,          Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.          Sir: You have asked us to advise you whether the bonds which school treasurers and school depositories are required to furnish may be the bonds of individual sureties, or whether corporate sureties are necessary.          Section 326 of the School Code of May 18, 1911, P. L. 309, 24 P. S. 303, requires each school treasurer to "furnish to the school district a proper bond, in such amount and with such surety or sureties as the board of school directors therein may approve, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties as school treasurer."          Section 509 of the Code, 24 P. S. 461, requires each school depository to '"furnish a proper bond, in such amount and with such surety or sureties as may be required, to be approved by the board of school directors.''          In our opinion of July 30, 1931, to your Department, we advised that these sections do not permit treasurers or depositories to post collateral security in place of giving bonds with surety or sureties thereon.          As we pointed out in that opinion, a recognized definition of a '' surety" is a person who becomes responsible for the debt, default or miscarriage of another. The basic concept of the term is a personal relation, a personal liability. It has been only in comparatively recent years that corporations have been authorized to become sureties. The law of sureties and surety ship developed when individual sureties were the only ones known to the law. The term could not now be limited to mean corporate sureties only, unless such a limitation is obviously intended in the particular case under consideration. In spite of the growth of...