People v. American Surety Co.

Action on a bail bond. On the twenty-ninth day of April, 1919, a complaint was filed in the justice’s court of San Bernardino township, in the county of San Bernardino, charging one Schumacher with a felony, and a warrant of arrest was duly issued. On the first day of May, the defendant being in custody under said warrant, the justice made an order fixing his bail at the sum of two thousand dollars. Thereafter, on the third day of May, the defendant executed an undertaking of bail for Schumacher in the sum of two thousand dollars. The undertaking was in the form prescribed by section 1278 of the Penal Code, and accordingly recited that “an order having been made . . . that Harry W. Schumacher be held to answer upon the charge of a felony upon which he has been admitted to bail in the sum of two thousand dollars,” and the defendant undertook that the said Schumacher “will appear and answer the charge above mentioned in whatever court it may be prosecuted,” etc.

At the time of execution of the undertaking there had not been any preliminary examination of Schumacher. The time for holding the preliminary examination was set for the nineteenth day of June and the defendant in that…