Western Surety Co. v. United States

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California against appellant, Western Surety Company, rendered on a writ of scire facias seeking such extraordinary relief in favor of the appellee and against appellant to recover on a bail *89 bond, alleged to have been forfeited, on which appellant is held to be a surety.

The bond was for the appearance of one Jos. S. Lamonte at the trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on one of several indictments there returned against him. It was executed in Los Angeles in the Southern District of California before a United States Commissioner, enclosed with a letter to the clerk of the New York court and placed in the mails for forwarding to him.

Nothing further is known of the letter or the bond after its deposit in the mails, though search of the New York court’s records failed to disclose that it or the letter from California with which it was enclosed was received by the clerk. , If it was received by the New York clerk, it is not shown in which of the cases it became a record, if in any. No attempt is shown to have been made to restore a record…