State v. Armstrong

364 So. 2d 558
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided November 21, 1978·No. 63271·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

364 So.2d 558 (1978)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Daisy ARMSTRONG et al. (Roger Williams Insurance Co.).

No. 63271.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

November 2, 1978.
Dissenting Opinion November 21, 1978.

*559 Tucker & Schonekas, Gibson Tucker, Jr., Peter J. Castano, New Orleans, for defendant-relator.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Ralph Capitelli, Fredericka Homberg, Louise S. Korns, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiffs-respondents.

TATE, Justice.

At the instance of the surety on certain bail bonds, we granted certiorari, 363 So.2d 911, to review certain rulings made by the district court with regard to bail bonds by this defendant.

We consider the primary and dispositive issue before us to be whether, in a criminal prosecution, the trial court may entertain a collateral attack upon the legal qualifications of a surety company which has issued a bail bond for the release of an accused defendant, when that company is authorized by the commissioner of insurance to do business in Louisiana and thus is authorized by La.C.Cr.P. art. 323 to become surety for the release of a criminally accused person on bail.

Context Facts

The undisputed showing is that the surety ("Roger Williams") was issued a certificate of authority to do business in Louisiana by the Louisiana commissioner of insurance, upon that official's determination that the company possessed the qualifications and assets required by applicable law and regulation to become surety on bail bonds. (The district attorney contends, however, that the commissioner was in error in so doing, and that the company did not in fact possess the legally required qualifications and assets.)

The issue was raised by the district attorney in this manner in the Criminal District Court for Orleans Parish:

In five criminal cases in which the four individuals charged had been released under an appearance bond with Roger Williams as surety, the prosecutor filed a "Rule to Show Cause Why New Or Additional Security Should Not Be Posted." The prayer of each of the rules prayed only that Roger Williams and its agent show cause why new or additional security should not be posted.

The allegations upon which this relief was founded do not set forth any improper conduct by Roger Williams in the performance of its functions with regard to bail bonds, or any unlawful or immoral conduct with regard to its conduct in Orleans Parish. Instead, the prosecutor alleges certain alleged deficiencies in the corporate procedure by which Roger Williams had converted itself from a foreign into a domestic corporation and in its issuance of its stock shares, and he further alleges that $300,000 of the assets listed with the commissioner of insurance (as part of the $1,000,000 paidin capital statutorily required for an insurer in the surety business, see La.R.S. 22:71, subd. A(19) (1966)) should not be considered sufficient, since this amount was allegedly encumbered.

At the hearing, the insurer objected that the only issue before the court was its financial responsibility insofar as the five bonds at issue. It did not seek to rebut in detail the state's evidence tending to prove the allegations, although it introduced certain documentary evidence tending to prove that the $300,000 was not encumbered. Instead, the insurer produced by stipulation evidence that it had performed all its obligations as surety in the numerous instances it had furnished bail bonds in Orleans Parish.

I.

The prosecutor filed its rules to show cause under the purported authority of La. *560 C.Cr.P. art. 321: "The court having trial jurisdiction over the offense charged, on its own motion or on motion of the state or defendant, for good cause may either increase or reduce the amount of bail, or require new or additional security."

In ruling on the motion, the trial court did not require the defendants to furnish new or additional security, the only relief specifically sought by the motion. Instead, the trial court issued a blanket order to the clerk of court to accept no more bail bonds from Roger Williams. The court further ordered that the directors and officers of that company be personally responsible for the appearance of the four individual defendants for whom the surety had furnished bail bonds.[1]

At this point, we note that the thrust of the attack upon Roger Williams appearing as surety on the bail bonds is not its insolvency or its actual failure or ability to perform adequately its responsibility as surety. Instead, the attack concerns whether Roger Williams met the statutory qualifications of an insurer authorized to do business as surety in Louisiana. The prosecutor alleges and attempts to prove that Roger Williams did not meet such qualifications. He does so, despite the certificate of authority to Roger Williams to act as surety on bail bonds, which had been issued by the state commissioner of insurance, who is constitutionally and statutorily authorized to determine Roger Williams' qualifications to do so.

For reasons set forth below, this collateral attack upon the qualifications of an authorized surety is not contemplated or authorized in criminal prosecutions wherein the insurer has become surety upon a bail bond, as empowered to do so by the certificate of authority issued to it by the regulatory agency statutorily responsible for determining its qualifications to act as surety.

II.

La.C.Cr.P. art. 323 provides: "A surety company authorized to do business in the State of Louisiana may become surety for the release of a person on bail."

This code article appears in a chapter entitled "Sureties." After Article 323's provision that a surety company may become surety, the remaining articles of the chapter (324-329) regulate the qualifications and formalities for personal sureties who may also become surety on bail bonds.

In context, the provision of Article 323 means that a surety company "authorized to do business in the State of Louisiana" means that such a surety company is legislatively entitled to act as surety on bail bonds, just as personal sureties meeting the qualifications of Article 324 are also statutorily entitled to become surety.

Article 321 does not contemplate that a prosecutor may defeat an accused's release on bail by a collateral attack upon the certificate of authority of the commissioner of insurance authorizing the surety company to so act. We are re-enforced in this view by the legislative history and background of this article.

The Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure was adopted in 1966 by the legislature upon recommendation of the Louisiana State Law Institute. The official revision comments to Article 323 note that the source of this article is La.R.S. 15:103, and that it is a restatement of the last clause of Article 103 of the 1928 Code to similar effect.

At the time Article 323 was enacted in 1966, Article 103 of the 1928 Code had been re-enacted in the Revised Statutes of 1950 as La.R.S. 15:103 and had been amended by Act 411 of 1962 so as to clarify its intent by the addition of a sentence which explicitly prohibited the courts from refusing to accept in criminal proceedings bail security furnished by any surety company authorized *561 to do business in Louisiana by the commissioner of insurance.[2]

The prosecutor forcefully argues that, despite the lack of shown intent to change the meaning of La.R.S. 15:103 (1962), the 1966 codifica

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State v. Armstrong, 364 So. 2d 558 (La. 1978).

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