2016 Mississippi Code
Title 25 - Public Officers and Employees; Public Records
Chapter 1 - Public Officers; General Provisions
§ 25-1-23. Procedure for determining sufficiency of doubtful bond

The officers by whom official bonds of public officials and employees are to be approved shall have the right to inspect the land described in the affidavit made by a surety on any such bond, and shall have the right to orally examine the surety and others touching the description and value of such land. If the approving officers shall fail or refuse to approve any such official bond within fifteen (15) days after it is presented to them by any duly elected or appointed officer or employee and such officer or employee is debarred of his office or position by reason of such failure or refusal, the officer or employee thus debarred may, within ten (10) days after the expiration of the said fifteen-day period, appeal to the chancery court of the county, upon giving bond with sufficient sureties in a penalty of One Hundred Dollars ($ 100.00), payable to the state and conditioned that he will perform the decree of the chancery court. The appeal bond, if sufficient, shall be approved by the clerk of the chancery court and forthwith delivered to the officers who have failed or refused to approve the official bond.

When the appeal bond has been approved and delivered to the approving officers, they shall immediately file it, together with the official bond and the affidavits by the sureties that are annexed to it, in the office of the clerk of the chancery court; and the cause shall be immediately entered on the issue docket of the chancery court as a suit in equity in the name of the aggrieved officer or employee, as complainant, and in the names of the approving officers, as defendants, which cause shall then be at issue and shall be a preference case. The controversy shall be tried de novo, either in term or in vacation, at a time to be fixed by an order made by the chancellor, and no other or further notice of the trial shall be necessary. The issue shall be the sufficiency vel non of the official bond, and the burden of proof shall be upon the appealing officer or employee.

If the bond be adjudged to be sufficient and the approving officers are still unwilling to approve it, the appealing officer or employee may deliver to the approving officers certified copies of the bond, the affidavits of the sureties annexed to it, and the decree of the chancery court; and he shall thereupon be entitled to have the oath of office administered to him and to occupy the office to which he was theretofore elected or appointed.

If the bond be adjudged to be insufficient, a decree shall be rendered against the appealing officer or employee and the sureties on the appeal bond, requiring them to pay the costs of the proceeding in the chancery court; but such adjudication shall not preclude the appealing officer or employee from furnishing a sufficient bond, and the approval thereof by the approving officers, at any time before another person has been duly elected or appointed to the office or position.