Beth's Bail Bonds, Inc. v. State

2016 Ark. App. 183, 486 S.W.3d 822, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 196
Court of Appeals of Arkansas·Decided March 30, 2016·No. CV-15-541·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

DAVID M. GLOVER, Judge

hBeth’s Bail Bonds, Inc. (Bail Bonds), appeals from the March 2, 2015, bond-forfeiture judgment and the March 9, 2015 order denying its motion to set aside the bond-forfeiture judgment. Bail- Bonds raises four .points of appeal: 1) the bond-forfeiture judgment should not have been entered because the. defendant, Robert Lewis Ford, was in the Pulaski County Detention Center on the day of the hearing; 2) the trial court abused its discretion by not granting Bail Bonds, a continuance to.have counsel present; 3) the-provisions of, Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-84-207 (Repl. 2005) were not followed in that the trial court did not issue a warrant when Ford missed his court date; and 4) the trial court abused its discretion by not setting aside the bond-forfeiture judgment pursuant to Rule'60 of ..the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure. We affirm.

Bail Bonds wrote a $20,000 bail bond for Robert Lewis Ford in Case No. CR13-2394. On November 17, 2014, Ford -failed to appear for court, and a summons and order to show cause were sent to Bail Bonds on that day, ordering it to appear in court on February |223, 2015, and show cause why Ford’s bond should not be for-' feited due to his failure to appear. It is undisputed the February 23 hearing was cancelled due to inclement' weather and rescheduled for February 25,-2015.

David Viele, who is not an attorney, appeared on behalf of Bail Bonds at the February 25, 2015 hearing. He informed the court that Bail Bonds’s counsel was not available-to come on .that day, -further explained that no‘warrant had been issued on Ford,' and asked the court to reset the show-cause hearing for March 9, when' another bail matter involving Ford and a different bail-bond company was to be addressed. The judge responded by saying, “All right. Judgment for the county for $20,000.”

Ford was not present at the February 25 hearing, but Bail Bonds discovered that afternoon that he had been in the Pulaski County Jail since February 24, 2015. Thinking the bond-forfeiture judgment had already been entered, Bail Bonds filed a motion to set aside the forfeiture judgment on that same date, February 25, 2015. In it, Bail Bonds’s basic arguments for setting aside the forfeiture were that Ford had been in custody since February 24; that he was still in custody at the time of the bond-forfeiture hearing on February 25; and that there was no evidence a warrant had ever been entered in the ACIC/NCIC system based on Ford’s failure to appear on November 17,2014.

On March 2, 2015, the trial court actually entered the bond-forfeiture judgment against Bail Bonds in the amount of $20,000. A hearing on the motion to set aside was held March 9, 2015. Bail Bonds’s counsel was present at that hearing and argued the motion. The trial court denied the motion, and an order to that effect was entered on March 9, 2015.

laFor ease of discussion, we will address Bail Bonds’s arguments in a slightly different order, beginning with the first and third points, followed by the second point and then the fourth point. Bail Bonds first contends the bond-forfeiture judgment should not have been entered because Ford was in the Pulaski County Detention Center on the day of the hearing. We disagree.

In M & M Bonding Co. v. State, 59 Ark. App. 228, 233, 955 S.W.2d 521, 524 (1997) (citations omitted), our court explained in pertinent part:

Although the surety is not expected to keep the principal in physical restraint he is expected to keep close track of his whereabouts and keep him within this state subject to the jurisdiction of the court.
The surety is not released from forfeiture except where an act of God, the State, or of a public enemy, or actual duress prevents appearance by the accused at the time fixed in the bond. Absent one of those excuses the failure of an accused to appear at the time fixed is sufficient basis for forfeiture.
Proceedings after forfeiture are summary ones. The order to show cause pursuant to [the statute] merely affords the bondsman an opportunity to be heard with respect to remission of all or some part of the forfeiture.
Where the principal does not appear there is no exoneration from liability under the bond, regardless of the extent of the search by the surety, if the surety shows no more than a disappearance of the principal. The trial court’s authority to remit a forfeiture when the accused is subsequently surrendered by the surety is discretionary and that discretion will not be interfered with unless it is arbitrary or abused. It devolves upon the bail bondsman to establish facts which justify favorable action in the exercise of the trial court’s discretion, and the failure to allow him even his expenses in this matter is not necessarily an abuse of the court’s discretion. The mere fact that the bail takes the accused into custody after the forfeiture and surrenders him to the authorities, even during the same term of court, does not entitle the bail to a right to remission of the penalty, even though the return of the principal was at the expense of the surety.

(Emphasis in original.) See also Ark. Code Ann. § 16-84-207(b)(1) (“If the defendant fails to appear at any time when the defendant’s presence is required under subsection (a) of this | ¿section, the circuit court shall ... adjudge the bail bond of the defendant or the money deposited in lieu thereof tobe forfeited, ”) (Emphasis added.)

Here, the most critical date regarding the bond forfeiture was November 17, 2014 — the date when Robert Ford failed to appear in court for a scheduled hearing. Bail Bonds acknowledges that more than seventy-five days had passed by the time Ford was confined in jail in February on different charges, making the issue one that clearly involved the trial court’s discretion. See Ark. Code Ann. § 16-84-207(c)(2)(A). Further, Ford’s capture was not achieved by Bail Bonds. Without citing any legal authority, and relying on an argument we do not find convincing, Bail Bonds asks us to reverse the bond-forfeiture judgment based on the fact Ford was in custody -at the time of the show-cause hearing. We find no abuse of the trial court’s discretion and decline to reverse the bond-forfeiture judgment on that basis.

Bail Bonds next contends the provisions of Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-84-207 were not followed because the trial court did not issue a warrant when the defendant missed his court date. Again, we find no basis for'reversal.

Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-84-207 provides in pertinent part:

(b)(1) If the defendant fails to appear at any time when the defendant’s presence is required under section (a) of this section, the circuit court shall enter this fact by written order or docket entry, adjudge the bail bond of the defendant or the money deposited in lieu thereof to . be forfeited, and issue a warrant for the arrest of the defendant.

(Emphasis added.)

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Beth's Bail Bonds, Inc. v. State, 2016 Ark. App. 183, 486 S.W.3d 822, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 196 (Ark. Ct. App. 2016).

2016 Ark. App. 183 (Beth's Bail Bonds, Inc. v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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