County of Orange v. Allied Fidelity Insurance

California Court of Appeal Oct 31, 1984 No. Civ. 30727Published

Before: Crosby, Wallin, Sonenshine

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Holding. The court held that a trial court's order exonerating a bail bond necessarily implies the prior setting aside of a previous forfeiture, rendering the failure to formally vacate the forfeiture a meaningless ministerial error.

Issues

Whether a trial court's order exonerating a bail bond effectively sets aside a prior forfeiture of that bond.
Whether the county is entitled to recover on a bond when the defendant has appeared and been sentenced, despite a failure to formally vacate a prior forfeiture.

Disposition. reversed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“exoneration of bail is sufficient to imply its previous reinstatement”

“it is logically impossible to exonerate a bond which has already been forfeited, without previously vacating the forfeiture.”

“The failure of the court to incant the magic words to set aside the forfeiture, purely a ministerial act and one which was obviously intended, is simply meaningless under the circumstances.”

Opinion

CROSBY, J.

—Allied Fidelity Insurance Company and its agent, AA Bail Bonds, appeal from an order denying their motion to set aside a summary judgment entered on a forfeited bond (Pen. Code, §§ 1305, 1306).

Brenda Joyce Williams was charged with forgery (Pen. Code, § 470), and Allied posted a $15,000 bail bond on her behalf. She pleaded guilty, and sentencing was scheduled for August 6, 1982. Before that date, her attorney advised the court she was incarcerated in the Los Angeles County jail and would be unable to appear.

The court continued the sentencing hearing to August 16, 1982. But when Williams failed to appear on the 6th, another judge, although advised of the continuance, forfeited bail and issued and held a bench warrant. Four days later, the clerk mailed notice of the forfeiture to Allied and AA.

Williams appeared in court with counsel at the correct time on August 16th, and the judge who had previously continued the matter imposed a

[512]

prison sentence. At the close of the hearing, the court granted defense counsel’s request to exonerate the bond. The judge failed to utter the words setting aside the forfeiture before exonerating the bond, however.

An Allied employee telephoned the superior court clerk on January 6, 1983, and confirmed Williams’ bail had been exonerated on August 16, 1982. Accordingly, neither Allied nor AA moved to set aside the forfeiture. On March 24, 1983, the County of Orange obtained summary judgment on the bond forfeiture in an ex parte proceeding. Allied was subsequently served with notice of entry of summary judgment and demand for payment (Pen. Code, § 1306).

On April 21, 1983, Allied filed a motion to set aside the summary judgment and exonerate the bond. County counsel claimed the court lacked jurisdiction to set aside the forfeiture because it was entered more than 180 days earlier. The motion was denied. Here, Allied contends (1) the court necessarily set aside the forfeiture when it exonerated the bail and (2) the county should be estopped since representations by the clerk’s office were responsible for Allied’s failure to go through the motions of having the forfeiture set aside. Since we will find that exoneration of bail is sufficient to imply its previous reinstatement, we do not reach the second argument.

County of Orange v. Allied Fidelity Insurance

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CROSBY, J.

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