TITLE XXXV (REVISED STATUTES).

INTERNAL REVENUE.

SEC.3140, as amended by the act of February 27, 1877 (19 Stat., 240). The word "State," when used in this Title, shall be construed to include the Territories and the District of Colum

Collection dis

tricts.

bia, where such construction is necessary to carry out its provisions. And where not otherwise distinctly expressed or manifestly incompatible with the intent thereof, the word "person," as used in this title, shall be construed to mean and include a partnership, association, company, or corporation, as well as a natural person.

SEC. 1, R. S. In determining the meaning of the Revised Statutes, or of any act or resolution of Congress passed subsequent to February twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, words importing the singular number may extend and be applied to several persons or things; words importing the plural number may include the singular; words importing the masculine gender may be applied to females; the word "person" may extend and be applied to partnerships and corporations, and the reference to any officer shall include any person authorized by law to perform the duties of such office, unless the context shows that such words were intended to be used in a more limited sense; and a requirement of an "oath" shall be deemed complied with by making affirmation in judicial form.

SEC. 2. The word "county" includes a parish, or any other equivalent subdivision of a State or Territory of the United States.

SEC. 3. The word "vessel" includes every description of water craft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water.

SEC. 4. The word "vehicle" includes every description of carriage or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on land.

SEC. 5. The word "company" or "association," when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words 'successors and assigns of such company or association," in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed.

Person includes corporations. (23 Int. Rev. Rec., 141; 15 Op. Atty. Gen., 230.) The term "corporation," as used in the acts of Congress touching internal revenue, does not include a State. (Georgia v. Atkins, collector, 8 Int. Rev. Rec., 113.) The term "person" does not include a State. (12 Op. Atty. Gen., 176.)

As to the meaning of the term revenue law. (United States v. Hill, 123 U. S., 681.)

SEC. 3141. For the purpose of assessing, levying, and collecting the taxes provided by the internal-revenue laws, the President may establish convenient collection-districts, and for that purpose he may subdivide any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or may unite two or more States or Territories into one district, and may from time to time alter said districts: Provided, That the number of districts in any State shall not exceed the number of Representatives in Congress to which such State was entitled in the Thirty-seventh Congress, except in such States as were entitled to an increased representation in the Thirty-eighth Congress, in which States the number of districts shall not exceed the number of Representatives to which any such Verbal error State was so entitled: And provided further, That in the Act Feb. 27, State of California the President may establish a number 1877 (19 Stat., 20). of districts not exceeding the number of Senators and Representatives to which said State was entitled, in the Thirty-seventh Congress.

corrected.

The power of the President to change or alter collection districts considered. (10 Op. Atty. Gen., 469; 12 Op. Atty. Gen., 51; 14 Op. Atty. Gen., 215.)

For list of internal-revenue collection districts in the United States, with location of collectors' offices, see page 33.

When two

SEC. 3142. The President, by and with the advice and con- Collectors. sent of the Senate, shall appoint for each collection-district a collector, who shall be a resident of the same. or more collection-districts are united by him, he may designate from among the existing officers of such districts one collector for the new district, or, at his discretion, he may make a new appointment of such officer for said district.

The legislative appropriation act for 1877, passed August 15' 1876 (19 Stat., 152), reduced the number of internal-revenue districts to 131.

The appropriation act for 1878, passed March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., 303), reduced the number to 126.

Executive order of June 25, 1883, as modified by orders of June 30, 1883, and October 13 and December 5, 1883, reduced the number of districts from 126 to 84.

Executive order of February 13, 1884, reestablished the district of Nevada (which in 1883 was consolidated with Fourth California), making the number of districts 85.

The number of districts was reduced from 85 to 63 by Executive order of May 21, 1887. (33 Int. Rev. Rec., 157.)

Under existing law there is no limitation placed on the term of office of collectors of internal revenue, and in this respect this office differs from other civil officers of the Government. (Commissioners' reports, 1877 and 1881.)

Judicial notice will be taken of the official character and the official acts of the collector and his deputy. (Leach r. Snyder (1886), 112 Pa., 161.)

SEC. 238. The commissions of all officers employed in levying or collecting the public revenue shall be made out and recorded in the Department of the Treasury, and the seal of the Department affixed thereto. But the seal shall not be affixed to any such commission before the same has been signed by the President.

SEC. 3143, as amended by section 2, act March 1, 1879 (20 Stat., 327), and by section 5, act March 2, 1895 (28 Stat.,807). Every collector, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall execute a bond for such amount as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, with not less than five sureties, to be approved by the Solicitor of the Treasury, conditioned that said collector shall faithfully perform the duties of his office according to law, and shall justly and faithfully account for and pay over to the United States, in compliance with the order or regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury, all public moneys which may come into his hands or possession; and he shall, from time to time, renew, strengthen, and increase his official bond, as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct, with such further conditions as the said Commissioner shall prescribe; and he shall execute a new bond whenever required so to do by the Secretary of the Treasury, with such conditions as may be required by law or prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with not less than five sureties; which new bond shall be in lieu of any former bond or bonds of such collector in respect to all liabilities accruing after the date of its approval by the Solicitor of the Treasury. Said bonds shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Proceedings against delinquent collectors. (§§ 3624, 3625, 3633, Appendix, p. 381.)

Claims for credit in suits brought by the United States. (§ 951, p. 391.)

Collectors'

bonds.

Allowance to collectors; set-offs. (Hall v. United States, 91 U. S. (1 Otto), 559.)

Gaugers' fees received by collectors; Treasury settlements. (Soule et al. v. United States, 100 U. S. (10 Otto), 8; 26 Int. Rev. Rec., 4.)

Due diligence. (United States v. Kimball, 101 U. S. (11 Otto), 725.)

Money received from sale of stamps; use of old form of bond. (United States v. Hough, 103 U. S. (13 Otto), 71.)

Bond not void because district is not stated. (United States v. Jackson, 104 U. S. (14 Otto), 41; 28 Int. Rev. Rec., 12.)

Collectors' receipts; certified transcripts. (United States v. Hunt, 105 U. S. (15 Otto), 183; 28 Int. Rev. Rec., 134.)

Evidence. (United States v. Stone, 106 U. S. (16 Otto), 525.) The addition of a condition, not specifically named in the act of Congress, that obligors shall not be liable if each and every deputy appointed by the collector shall truly and faithfully execute and discharge all the duties of such deputy collector according to law, does not relieve the sureties from liability. Mode of settling accounts of collectors; mode of prosecuting suits, etc. (Chadwick v. United States, 3 Fed. Rep., 750.)

Collector approving worthless bonds; liability of bond for loss sustained by Government. (United States v. Thorn, 9 Int. Rev. Rec., 65.)

Sureties liable for taxes collected and not accounted for. (United States v. Harry Chase et al., 22 Int. Rev. Rec., 11; King v. United States, 99 U. S., 229.)

Liability of sureties when duties are imposed on principal by laws subsequent to the execution of the bond. (United States v. McCartney, 26 Int. Rev. Rec., 28.) This question and other questions relating to sureties on official bonds considered. (30 Int. Rev. Rec., 161, 166.)

Question of credits, time when compensation commences. (United States v. Flanders, 112 U. S., 88; 30 Int. Rev. Rec., 397.) Liability of a surety on an official bond is stricti juris; surety not to be held responsible for the conduct of his principal beyond the scope of his undertaking reasonably construed. (United States v. Adams et al., 31 Int. Rev. Rec., 261.)

In a suit on collector's bond, where one of the sureties had signed the bond in blank already signed by the principal, with an understanding with the principal that only a certain amount was to be inserted therein as penalty, and with the further understanding that two additional sureties were to be furnished, each worth a certain sum, and where the bond was afterwards completed by the insertion of an amount larger than that agreed upon, and signed by two worthless sureties, and afterwards the bond was delivered to the proper officer of the Government, who accepted it in the belief that it was properly executed and with no notice of the private agreement, held that the first surety was liable. Case not distinguished in principle from Dair v. United States (16 Wall., 1). (Butler v. United States, 21 Wall., 272.)

A judgment against a defaulting collector does not bind a surety on his bond unless the surety was a party to the action; and no Federal statute creates a lien on the property of a collector of internal revenue or his sureties from the execution of his official bond, or from the date of any default thereon. (United States v. Ingates, Circuit Court, S. D. Ala. (1891); 48 Fed. Rep., 251.)

Accounts must be stated to show liability under each bond. (United States v. Barton Abel; 15 Int. Rev. Rec., 41 and 50.)

A bond takes effect upon its acceptance and approval. (19 How., 73.)

Public officers liable for all moneys that come into their hands officially. (United States v. Prescott, 3 How., 378.)

The payment of money to the deputy collector without receiving stamps therefor was not a payment of the tax on the brandy; the money did not become public money in the hands of the collector, and the sureties were not liable for it. (United States v. llermance et al, 15 Blatch., 6.)