People v. National Automobile & Casualty Insurance
Opinion
Opinion
Cologne, J.
The People appeal after the trial court granted the Penal Code section 1305 motion of defendant National Automobile and Casualty Insurance Company (National) to vacate an order forfeiting a bond issued in a criminal case and to exonerate the bond. The motion to vacate and exonerate was made on the 181st day after the court ordered the bond forfeited.
On June 15, 1977, Gladys Irene Bishop failed to appear for the readiness conference in her criminal case and the superior court ordered her bond forfeited. A notice of forfeiture letter together with a proof of its service by mail, both dated June 15, were prepared under the name of Mary Jo Thompson, deputy county clerk. The parties stipulated Mary Jo Thompson did not stamp or prepare the notice letter for mailing nor did she take to or deposit in the United States mail the notice letter of forfeiture on June 15, 1977, and, if she were called, would state she could not say she personally knows of her own knowledge that the letter was or was not deposited in the United States mails on June 15, 1977.
On June 23, defendant Bishop was returned to court. She entered a guilty plea July 26 and was sentenced August 23.