People v. Amwest Surety Insurance

The People appeal an order of the superior court granting the motion of defendant Amwest Surety Insurance Company (Amwest) to set aside a summary judgment entered against it. (Pen. Code, § 1306.) The summary judgment was entered after Amwest’s motion to exonerate bond was denied and the bond forfeited because the trial court believed a sufficient excuse may have existed for a previous failure to appear in court of the defendant, Avina M. Martin, who was the subject of the Amwest bail bond, and who later failed to appear again, this time causing the forfeiture of the bond.

At the motion hearing before the presiding judge, Amwest argued the summary judgment should be set aside because the trial court lacked jurisdiction to forfeit the bond when Martin again failed to appear because it had declined to do so at the first failure to appear, based on a finding of sufficient excuse as mentioned above. We conclude the court hearing the motion in the presiding department erred in setting aside the summary judgment; on this record, the trial court acted well within the discretion granted to it by section 1305.1 to continue the case for a reasonable period of time to enable the…