Chapter 78 — Suretyship

Unofficial online text published by the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes; the printed volumes of the Kansas Statutes Annotated are the authoritative version. Current through the 2025 session laws.

Article 1 General Provisions

§ 78-101 Sureties; public officers and attorneys ineligible; exception

(a) Except as provided by subsection (b), no state or county officers, or their deputies, shall be taken as surety on the bond of any administrator, executor or other officer from whom bond is or may be required by law. No practicing attorney shall be taken on any official bond, or bond in any legal proceedings as aforesaid, in the district in which the attorney resides.

(b) The secretary for children and families, in the secretary's official capacity, shall act as surety on the bond of any conservator providing advocacy services to a conservatee under contract with the agency designated as the Kansas guardianship program established under K.S.A. 74-9601 to 74-9606, inclusive, and amendments thereto.

History: L. 1867, ch. 27, § 1; G.S. 1868, ch. 13, § 1; R.S. 1923, 78-101; L. 1986, ch. 213, § 1; L. 1995, ch. 189, § 7; L. 2014, ch. 115, § 431; July 1.

§ 78-102 Surety companies; misrepresentation in application no defense

Whenever any recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking conditioned for faithful performance of any contract of duty, or for the doing or refraining from doing anything in such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking specified, is by the law of the state of Kansas required or permitted to be given with one surety, or with a sufficient surety, the execution of the same or the guaranteeing of the performance of the conditions thereof shall be sufficient when executed or guaranteed solely by a corporation, incorporated under the laws of the United States, or of any state, having power to guarantee the fidelity of persons holding positions of public or private trust and to execute and guarantee bonds and undertakings in judicial proceedings; however, such corporation must be authorized to do business in the state of Kansas, and such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking must be approved by the head of the department, court, judge, officer, board or body executive, legislative or judicial required to approve or accept the same. It shall be no defense in a suit to recover on such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking, that any false statement or misrepresentation were made in the application therefor by the person or party named as principal therein or giving the same.

History: L. 1917, ch. 127, § 1; R.S. 1923, 78-102; L. 2006, ch. 124, § 8; July 1.

§ 78-103 Venue of actions

Any surety company doing business under the provisions of this act may be sued in respect thereof in any court of the United States or in the state of Kansas which has now, or hereafter may have, jurisdiction of actions on suits upon such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking in the district in which such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking was made or guaranteed, or in the district in which the agent of such company is located. And for the purpose of this act, such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking shall be treated as made or guaranteed in the district in which the office is located, to which it is returnable, or in which it is filed, or in the district in which the principal of such recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking resided when it was made or guaranteed.

History: R.S. 1923, 78-103; December 27.

§ 78-104 Repealed

Revisor's Note: Later act, see 40-219.

History: L. 1895, ch. 73, § 6; R.S. 1923, 78-104; Repealed, L. 1951, ch. 474, § 1; June 30.

§ 78-105 Estoppel of company to deny corporate power

Any company which shall execute or guarantee any recognizance, stipulation, bond or undertaking under the provisions of this act shall be estopped in any such proceeding to enforce the liability which it shall have assumed to incur, to deny its corporate power to execute or guarantee any such instrument or assume such liability.

History: L. 1895, ch. 73, § 7; April 12; R.S. 1923, 78-105.

§ 78-106 Forfeitures by companies for noncompliance with laws

Any company, doing business under the provisions of this act, which shall fail to comply with any of its provisions, shall forfeit to the state of Kansas for every such failure not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000), to be recovered by suit in the name of the state of Kansas, in the same court in which suit may be brought against such company under the provisions of this act; and such failure shall not affect the validity of any contract entered into by such company.

History: L. 1895, ch. 73, § 8; April 12; R.S. 1923, 78-106.

§ 78-107 Limitation of liability of surety

All persons who shall offer themselves as sureties on official bonds, whether the same be state, county, township or city bonds, may designate, opposite their signature to such bond, the amount for which they are willing to be bound; and in case of a forfeiture of the bond they shall not be liable for a greater amount than the sum so designated.

History: L. 1891, ch. 150, § 1; March 12; R.S. 1923, 78-107.

§ 78-108 Allowance for cost of bond; limitation

Any receiver, assignee, conservator, committee, trustee, executor or administrator required by law or by the order of any court to give a bond as such, may include, as part of the lawful expense of executing his or her trust, such reasonable sum paid a company authorized under the laws of this state so to do for becoming surety on such bond as may be allowed by the court in which he or she is required to account not exceeding, however, one percentum per annum on the amount of such bond.

History: L. 1901, ch. 268, § 1; R.S. 1923, 78-108; L. 1965, ch. 508, § 1; January 1, 1966.

§ 78-109 Bonds of fiduciaries or representatives; amount

In all cases where a bond is required to be given by any executor, administrator, conservator or other person acting in a fiduciary capacity, if such bond be executed or guaranteed by a corporation incorporated under the laws of the United States or of any state authorized to do business in the state of Kansas, and having power to guarantee the fidelity of persons holding positions of public or private trust and to execute and guarantee bonds and undertakings in judicial proceedings, the amount of such bond to be fixed by the officer required to approve said bond shall be not less than one hundred and twenty-five percentum of the amount involved in the trust, or the actual value of the property belonging to the estate or coming into the hands of and under the control and management of such executor, administrator, conservator or trustee.

History: R.S. 1923, 78-109; L. 1965, ch. 508, § 2; January 1, 1966.

§ 78-110 Repealed

History: L. 1927, ch. 294, § 1; Repealed, L. 1969, ch. 427, § 2; July 1.

§ 78-111 Official corporate surety bonds; allowance for premiums

When any public official or deputy or employee of said public official is required by law to give bond, the premium of any duly licensed company on the bond of any such public officer, deputy or employee shall be allowed and paid by the county, township, municipality, school district or other political subdivision of which such person so giving such bond is officer, deputy or employee.

History: L. 1929, ch. 280, § 1; L. 1941, ch. 368, § 1; L. 1943, ch. 287, § 1; L. 1969, ch. 427, § 1; July 1.

§ 78-112 Individual sureties; execution before officer

That, whenever any bond, stipulation or undertaking given to any county, township, school district, city or other municipal corporation for the security of any deposit of public money or performance of any public contract, shall be signed by two or more individual sureties, said bond shall be signed by such sureties before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments, who shall subscribe to the fact that said bond was signed by such sureties in his or her presence.

History: L. 1933, ch. 163, § 1; June 5.