County of Orange v. Seneca Insurance Co.

To secure a criminal defendant’s release from custody, appellant Seneca Insurance Company 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. After multiple fruitless attempts to obtain payment on the judgment, respondent Orange County 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 Penal Code section 1308. With respect to appellant’s motion, the court declined to exonerate the bail, but granted a permanent stay of enforcement pursuant to Penal Code section 1306(f), because more than two years had elapsed since its entry. As for respondent’s request, the court: (1) found appellant did not pay the judgment; (2) determined the judgment’s underlying validity was not affected by the fact it could no longer be enforced; and (3) concluded suspension of appellant’s ability to act as a surety on bail was required pursuant to section 1308. As the facts were undisputed, and appellant did not pay the judgment at issue, the Court of Appeal found the trial court did not err in concluding appellant could no longer act as a surety on bail so long as it remained unpaid. View "County of Orange v. Seneca Insurance Co." on Justia Law