County of Los Angeles v. National Automobile & Casualty Insurance

Under Penal Code sections 1305 and 1306, once a criminal defendant’s bail has been forfeited and he has remained at large for more than 180 days, summary judgment may be entered against the surety of the bail. In this case, a motion requesting that the 180-day period be tolled was filed before the 180 days had expired, but was granted afterward. Summary judgment was then entered. The trial court denied the surety’s subsequent motion to set aside the summary judgment, even though it had been entered during the period contemplated by the tolling order. We do not reach the issue of whether summary judgment may be entered during a tolling period. Rather, we find that the trial court had no jurisdiction to order tolling once the 180-day period had expired. For this reason, we hold that the surety’s motion to set aside the summary judgment was properly denied.

Background

On June 17, 1995, the bail agent of appellant National Automobile & Casualty Insurance Company (National) posted a $30,000 bail bond for the release of Humberto Azora Bazur in the matter of People v. Bazur (Super. Ct. L.A. County, 1995, No. KA027813). Bazur failed to appear for arraignment on July 11, 1995,…