County of Los Angeles v. Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Ins. Co. CA2/7

INTRODUCTION

Appellant Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company (Indiana) appeals from the trial court’s order denying Indiana’s motion to set aside summary judgment, discharge forfeiture, and exonerate bail. Indiana argues the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion because the court materially increased Indiana’s risk under a bond posted to secure a defendant’s release in one case, when the court subsequently released the same defendant on his own recognizance in a preexisting, unrelated case. As discussed below, the trial court’s decision to release the defendant on the preexisting case did not materially increase Indiana’s risk under the subject bond. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s ruling.

BACKGROUND

A. The Defendant’s Criminal History and the Subject Bond On April 8, 2008, a criminal complaint was filed against Facial Cherradi, charging him with the following crimes: three counts of felony burglary; one count of felony identity theft; and one count of felony possession of a controlled substance (the old felony case). On April 15, 2008, Cherradi pled no contest to the felony identity theft charge, and the remaining charges were dismissed.…