§424. Duties of tax collector; liability for shortage of funds; cancellation of bond

The tax collector shall collect, account for, and pay over all taxes levied by the municipality, and perform all other duties required of him by ordinance, or such as may be required by law of collectors of parish and state taxes, under the same penalties prescribed by law for the collection of state and parish taxes. The tax collector, and the sureties on his official bond, shall be liable to the municipality for any defalcation, shortage or embezzlement of, or failure to account for, funds of the municipality collected by him, until he has obtained a quietus or discharge from the municipality for the amount of such collections, and for all public money with which he may have been entrusted. Notwithstanding his term as tax collector may have expired, the aforesaid liability of the tax collector, and the sureties on his official bond, shall be a continuing liability enforceable by the municipality against any property of the tax collector, and that of the sureties on his official bond, standing of record in his or their names at the date of the discovery of such defalcation, shortage, embezzlement or failure to account for, said funds, and until such quietus or discharge has been obtained, and regardless of whether the official bond has been placed on record or not.

If the surety on the bond should be an indemnity company authorized to do business in this State, or if there are personal sureties, it or the personal sureties, or either of them, or the tax collector, may proceed by rule, taken contradictorily with the municipality in the district court, to obtain a quietus from the municipality, and a cancellation of the official bond, if more than two years have elapsed from the date of the discovery of any defalcation, shortage or embezzlement of, or failure to account for, any funds of the municipality, without legal action having been taken by the municipality to collect the sum or sums representing the alleged defalcation, shortage or embezzlement of, or unaccounted for, funds, from the tax collector or his sureties.

The obligations imposed by this Section upon the tax collector, and the sureties on his official bond, and the measure of their respective liabilities on the bond as defined in this Section and the effect thereof upon the respective properties of such tax collector, or sureties, shall be implied conditions of the bond fully binding and enforceable against the tax collector and sureties on his bond and their respective properties, as though the same had been specially written therein.