8-19-101 - Execution of bonds Form Blanket bonds.
8-19-101. Execution of bonds Form Blanket bonds.
(a) The official bonds of all state and county officers, now required by law to furnish official bonds, shall be executed by such officials as principal and may be executed by some surety company authorized to do business in the state of Tennessee, as surety.
(b) (1) The form of all official bonds of all state officials and employees and all county officials and employees shall be prescribed by the comptroller of the treasury, with the approval of the attorney general and reporter. Such prescribed forms shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state. All official bonds of all such officers and employees executed hereafter shall be in the prescribed form if one has been provided. To the extent any such official bond is not in the prescribed form, the same shall stand reformed by implication of law so as to comply with the prescribed form.
(2) Should the prescribed form be amended, the amendment shall affect only bonds and undertakings executed subsequently thereto. Bonds shall continue to be executed in their present form until a form is prescribed therefor under this law. Forms shall be prepared so as to comply with the requirements of statutes of Tennessee relating to such bonds. Where the conditions of bonds are prescribed by statute, the statute shall prevail.
(c) Nothing in this chapter or elsewhere in this code shall be construed as prohibiting the use by any county, municipality, or metropolitan government, of a blanket bond for coverage of two (2) or more of its officials. A separate rider or attachment to the blanket bond shall be prepared for each principal, and wherever in this chapter the term bond is used, it likewise includes a blanket bond and each rider or attachment thereto. Each rider or attachment to a blanket bond shall be signed by the named principal, shall be acknowledged by the bond sureties, shall expressly incorporate the conditions stated in § 8-19-111, shall refer specifically to the blanket bond of which it is a part, and shall be filed, approved, and otherwise processed in the manner required for bonds under this chapter.
(d) The governing body of any county by a two-thirds (2/3) vote shall elect whether or not the county officials of the county shall make a surety bond or a bond with two (2) or more good sureties, approved by the legislative body, prior to the time such official is inducted and sworn into office.
[Acts 1941, ch. 138, § 1; C. Supp. 1950, § 1839.1; Acts 1957, ch. 289, § 1; 1976, ch. 616, § 1; 1978, ch. 620, § 1; 1978, ch. 689, §§ 6, 12; impl. am. Acts 1978, ch. 934, §§ 7, 36; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 8-1901.]