Zula Swanson v. United States

1. Statement Of The Case.

In 1951 Edgar Lewis was arrested on charges of violating the narcotic laws and was released under two appearance bonds in the total sum of $20,000 signed by the appellant as surety.

Since the conditions of the bonds are crucial in this case, they are given below in full for each bond, all emphasis being supplied:

The meager transcript does not give the dates of the bonds, but the appellee’s brief recites that the dates were August 28, 1951, for the bond numbered (1) and June 6, 1951, for the one numbered (2).

It should be observed that the only “court” referred to in either of these bonds is the “Commissioner’s Court”, which is not, of course, a real court at all. Form 17, in the Appendix to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure brings this out in a footnote, which states “Change ‘Court’ to ‘Commissioner’ if necessary”. 18 U.S.C.A. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, pages 46 and 620, footnotes 1 and 3 on each page.

The bonds, as given in the transcript, make no mention of the “United States District Court”. Read in its context, “the Court” as used in the paragraphs quoted above can only mean what is loosely referred to as the “United States…