Case Name: STONE v. MASON
Court: United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1823-10
Citations: 23 F. Cas. 157
Docket Number: 
Parties: STONE v. MASON.
Judges: (THRUS-TON, Circuit Judge, absent)
Reporter: Federal Cases
Volume: 23
Pages: 157–158

Head Matter:
Case No. 13,485.
STONE v. MASON.
[2 Cranch, C. C. 431.]
Circuit Court, District of Columbia.
Oct Term, 1823.
Officer — Public Use — Personal Responsibility.
A public officer who buys a bill of exchange for public use, and agrees to pay for it when it should be duly honored, is not personally responsible.
Assumpsit [by John Stone against John Mason] for money had and received. The defendant, as commissary general of prisoners, received $140 for a draft on Bermuda. Edward Stone put the draft into the defendant’s hands, and requested him to pay the money, when it should be received, to the plaintiff, of Baltimore. When the money was received at the defendant’s office, his clerk enclosed it in a letter to the plaintiff, directed to him at Baltimore, but it never came to bis hands.

Opinion:
On a case stated,
THE COURT
(THRUS-TON, Circuit Judge, absent)
rendered judg-
ment for the defendant, on the ground of his being a public officer; and it being a public contract to buy a bill for public use.