County of Orange v. Seneca Insurance Co.

Filed 4/19/19; Certified for publication 5/14/19 (order attached)

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

COUNTY OF ORANGE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G055660

v. (Super. Ct. No. 30-2017-00913115)

SENECA INSURANCE COMPANY, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from an order of the Superior Court of Orange County, Robert J. Moss, Judge. Affirmed. Law Office of John Rorabaugh, John Mark Rorabaugh and Crystal L. Rorabaugh for Defendant and Appellant. Leon J. Page, County Counsel, and Suzanne E. Shoai, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

This case requires us to interpret Penal Code section 1308, subdivision (a),1 which concerns a person or company’s ability to act as a surety on bail when a prior summary judgment against it stemming from a bail forfeiture remains unpaid. We find the statutory language is unambiguous. It specifies, without exception, that if an appeal bond is not posted and a bail forfeiture related summary judgment remains unpaid after 30 days from service of the notice of entry of judgment, the indebted person or company may not be accepted as a surety on bail. In this case it is undisputed there is an unpaid summary judgment against appellant Seneca Insurance Company. Consequently, we affirm the trial court’s order suspending its ability to act as a surety. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY To secure a criminal defendant’s release from custody, appellant posted a $100,000 bail bond. The defendant later failed to appear in court as ordered, so the trial court ordered the bond forfeited, and the clerk sent appellant and its bond agent a notice of forfeiture. Appellant did not thereafter bring defendant to court and it made no attempt to exonerate the bond within the statutory time period for doing so. With no request for exoneration of the bond, the trial court entered summary judgment against appellant on it and appellant was served with a notice of entry of judgment. Appellant unsuccessfully moved to set aside the summary judgment, discharge the forfeiture and exonerate the bond. This court affirmed the denial of relief in an unpublished opinion. (People v. Seneca Insurance Co. (Dec. 13, 2016, G051890) [nonpub. opn.].) After multiple fruitless attempts to obtain payment on the judgment, respondent filed a request for an order to show cause, seeking to disqualify appellant from acting as a surety on bail in Orange County pursuant to section 1308. The trial court issued the requested order to show cause.