Permit - Bond and proof of insurance; prerequisite to issuance of permit; filing of additional bonds; actions on bond.

(a) In the event the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries decides that a permit to operate a public warehouse should be issued, he shall fix the amount of the bond, which shall be furnished by the applicant and approved by the commissioner prior to the issuance of the permit. In addition to the requirement of bond, the commissioner may require the applicant, as a prerequisite to the issuance of such bond, to furnish legal proof of warehouseman's legal liability insurance in effect on the commodities to be stored in any such public warehouse.

(b) Such bond shall be made with some surety company that has complied with the laws of the State of Alabama and which has a reputation for promptly settling claims upon their merits and shall be payable to the State of Alabama in such sum as the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries may fix, but in no event be more than $5,000. Said bond shall be conditioned upon the faithful performance of his or its duties as a public warehouseman for the period covered by the permit and for a faithful compliance with all laws, rules, and regulations relating to the operation of a public warehouse.

(c) Notwithstanding the above bond requirements the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries may require the filing of additional bonds at any time by any warehouseman storing agricultural commodities, and the failure to file any such additional bonds, within the time to be fixed by the commissioner, shall be sufficient cause for revoking the permit issued such warehouseman.

(d) The bond required of an applicant for a permit to operate a public warehouse shall also undertake to pay to the State of Alabama all expenses of any successful litigation which the state institutes to compel a compliance with the laws and rules and regulations relative to public warehouses.

(e) Any person who suffers a loss because of a breach of the conditions of the required public warehouseman's bond may bring an action on such bond in his own name against the principal and surety thereon for any such breach and loss until the penalty of said bond is exhausted; provided, that the aggregate liability of the surety to all such persons shall in no event exceed the amount of such bond. In the event the penalty is exhausted, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries shall require the filing of an additional bond within a reasonable time period, or revoke the permit heretofore issued.

(Ag. Code 1927, §§393, 394; Acts 1931, No. 737, p. 844; Acts 1939, No. 443, p. 586; Code 1940, T. 2, §§573, 574; Acts 1980, No. 80-83, p. 107.)