Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/560

 this controversy requires the bond of the clerk to be conditioned “to faithfully discharge the duties of his office and seasonably record the decrees, judgments and determinations of the court.” That is the entire ground covered by the statute.

The additions required to be made, and in fact made, to the bond in question, are, in limine, the first sentence of the condition, “that he shall, by himself and by his deputies, faithfully perform,” etc., following the language of the statute; and then the last clause, which is not required in terms by the statute, is in these words: “And shall properly account for ail moneys that may come into his possession, as required by law."

Now, as regards the first superadded matter which relates to the deputy clerk, the statute in force when the bond was given authorizes the court to require a bond to be given by the deputy clerk for the faithful performance of his duties, but that same section (No. 796 of the Revised Statutes, 149,) expressly declared that the security so taken for the fidelity of the deputy clerk, in the respect of his duties, should not in anywise affect the liability of the clerk himself; hence it seems to me too clear to admit of controversy that this phraseology as to deputy clerks, as was suggested in the argument, is entirely supererogatory. It is certainly surplusage, and therefore ineffectual for any purpose, especially as it regards affecting or destroying the validity of the bonds.

It was said in argument (and I was struck with it at the time as possibly suggesting a point very material to be considered, but I came, ultimately, to the above conclusion) that this comprehensive language might involve a guaranty for the clerk in respect to things that he could not be competent to do. But my own reflections suggest an answer to that view of the case, to-wit, that the language employs this phraseology, and the consequent intendment to be deduced by the court from that language is that no other duty on the part of the clerk was contemplated, or intended to be in any wise guarantied, except such duties as were lawful—such as were already required by the law.