People v. Safety Nat’l Cas. Corp.
Annotate this CaseElshaddai Bent was charged with felony drunk driving. His bail was set at $25,000, and the bail bond was executed by Safety National Casualty Company. When Bent failed to appear at a pretrial hearing the trial court ordered that his bail be forfeited. Safety National moved to vacate the bail forfeiture on the grounds that Bent was not ordered to appear at the hearing, nor was his presence at the hearing required by law. The trial court denied the motion. The Court of Appeal reversed, holding that Cal. Pen. Code 977(b)(1) did not provide a basis for Bent's mandatory appearance that the hearing. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that, unless a defendant fails to execute a written waiver of personal presence, or has a sufficient excuse for his or her absence at a scheduled pretrial proceeding, the trial court must declare any bail forfeited under section Cal. Pen. Code 1305(a).
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.