AI-assisted research summary: A public officer who must let or award contracts cannot do so without requiring a bond for payment of labor and material.
If any public officer, whose duty it is to let or award contracts, lets or awards any contract without requiring bond for payment of labor and material, in compliance with § 12-4-201 , such officer commits a Class C misdemeanor. Acts 1925, ch. 121, § 3; Shan. Supp., § 3546a6; Code 1932, § 7957; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 12-418; Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 113. Cross-References. Penalty for Class C misdemeanor, § 40-35-111 . Textbooks. Tennessee Jurisprudence, 5 Tenn. Juris., Bridges, § 6; 18 Tenn. Juris., Limitation of Actions, § 26; 21 Tenn. Juris., Public Officers, § 47; 26 Tenn. Juris., Working Contracts, § 14. Decisions Under Prior Law 1. County — Freedom from Liability. 2. County Officials — Liability for Failure to Require Bond. 1. County — Freedom from Liability. The general rule that a county was not liable for damages resulting to third persons from the neglect of its officers, in regard to the public highways, operated to exempt the county itself from liability to anyone for the neglect of its bridge commissioners, in letting a contract for the construction of a public bridge, to take the bond required from the contractor. Rhea County v. Sneed, 105 Tenn. 581, 58 S.W. 1063, 1900 Tenn. LEXIS 108 (1900). There was no implied contract on the part of a county to pay for the materials and labor used by its contractor or his subcontractor in the construction of a public bridge or a courthouse, for a stipulated sum, where the materials were purchased and the laborers were employed by such contractor or his subcontractor. Rhea County v. Sneed, 105 Tenn. 581, 58 S.W. 1063, 1900 Tenn. LEXIS 108 (1900); W. T. Hardison & Co. v. Yeaman, 115 Tenn. 639, 91 S.W. 1111, 1905 Tenn. LEXIS 96 (1906). 2. County Officials — Liability for Failure to Require Bond. County bridge commissioners letting a contract for the construction of a public bridge, and members of a building committee contracting for the erection of a courthouse, failing to exact the statutory bond of the contractors, were not only indictable, but were also liable in a civil action for any damages resulting to laborers and furnishers of material, who would have been protected by the execution of the prescribed bond. Rhea County v. Sneed, 105 Tenn. 581, 58 S.W. 1063, 1900 Tenn. LEXIS 108 (1900); Templeton v. Nipper, 107 Tenn. 548, 64 S.W. 889, 1901 Tenn. LEXIS 106 (1901); W. T. Hardison & Co. v. Yeaman, 115 Tenn. 639, 91 S.W. 1111, 1905 Tenn. LEXIS 96 (1906). The individual liability of public officers, for their failure to take the contractor's statutory bond, was not escaped by the failure of the claimants to give notice of their claims within required days after the completion of the work, because the statutory provision as to notice was applicable only where the prescribed bond had been taken. W. T. Hardison & Co. v. Yeaman, 115 Tenn. 639, 91 S.W. 1111, 1905 Tenn. LEXIS 96 (1906); Tennessee Supply Co. v. Bina Young & Son, 142 Tenn. 142, 218 S.W. 225, 1919 Tenn. LEXIS 44 (1919).