People v. Financial Casualty & Surety, Inc.
Annotate this CasePenal Code section 1305, subdivision (a) requires the trial court to declare a forfeiture of bail when a defendant fails to appear in court without a satisfactory excuse. Once a notice of forfeiture is mailed, the surety has 180 days (plus five days for mailing of the notice) to move to vacate the forfeiture and exonerate the bond on the ground that the defendant has voluntarily appeared or is in custody following his or her arrest. Within the 185-day period, section 1305.4 allows the surety to file a motion, based on good cause, for an order extending the 185-day period, “not exceeding 180 days from its order.” Surety appealed the trial court's denial of its second motion to further extend the appearance period under section 1304.5 or, in the alternative, to toll the running of time on the extended appearance period. The court concluded that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Surety failed to show good cause to extend the appearance period a second time after previously receiving a 134 day extension. Alternatively, the tolling provision of section 1305, subdivision (h) does not apply to the facts of this case. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.