Runner v. Commonwealth
Runner v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
W. E. Runner, under charge of bastardy, executed a bond with appellants as sureties, conditioned for his appear
It is insisted for appellants, first, that no appeal would lie from the county court to the court of common pleas, but if there was any appeal it was to the circuit court; second, that the true import of the bond was, that the accused should appear and answer the charge in the county court, and that having so appeared and tendered himself in satisfaction of the judgment, appellants, the sureties in the bond, were discharged.
Waiving the inquiry as to whether the appeal should have been to the circuit court instead of to the court of common pleas, since a decision of the. other questions will dispose of. the case on its merits, we are of the opinion that, subsequent to the adoption of the present Code,- January, 1877, and prior to the passage of the act of May 5th, 1880, no appeal would lie in such cases either to the circuit court or to the court of common pleas. By an amendment,.March, i860, to section 20 of Myers’ Code, circuit courts were given appellate jurisdiction of judgments and final orders of the county court in bastardy cases. This section was omitted from the revision of 1877, and nothing introduced which appears to have been intended to take its place. It is true that subsection 2.of section 724 of the present Code authorizes an appeal to the circuit court where the matter in controversy is twenty dollars or moré, exclusive of interest -and costs; but that has
We might rest the case here, but the importance of the •■•second point, made by counsel, to the correct and uniform • administration of justice, constrains us to go further, and to express the opinion that the surrender by the sureties of W. E. Runner to the court was a satisfaction of the bond, and relieved appellants from any responsibility thereon.
Chapter 7 of General Statutes contemplates the execution of two bonds in bastardy proceedings — one to insure the appearance of the accused to answer the charge, and the other to secure the payment of such sums as may be adjudged against him on conviction. The forms of these bonds are given in section 14 of that chapter, the first of which is simply a bail bond, and the second a bond to secure the payment of such sums as may be adjudged against the ■ accused. The second of these bonds may be given before ■or after judgment, and the form varied to suit the facts; and
The bond for the appearance of the accused “in the county court, and to perform the judgment of said court,” is first mentioned in section 3 of chapter 7 of General Statutes, and the bond to secure the payment of the sums adjudged against him is first mentioned in section 5. This last mentioned section, speaking in reference to the bond referred to in the third section, provides that “should the accused fail to appear, as required by his bond, and remain to respond to and satisfy any judgment that may be rendered against him, the bond for his appearance as aforesaid shall be forfeited, and judgment rendered thereon.” In case of forfeiture for non-appearance, the sureties, instead of being compelled to pay the full amount of the forfeited bond, are permitted to execute a bond to pay such sums as may be adjudged against the accused. The ninth section provides that if the finding of the jury is against the accused, “and, in case of forfeiture and judgment thereon, should the surety or sureties, or either of them, fail or refuse to avail himself or themselves of the provisions” referred to above, the money collected upon the forfeiture shall be applied to the satisfaction of the judgment and costs, and the remainder, if .any, shall be paid to the trustee of the jury fund.
The 10th section reads: “The accused who has failed to execute'bond before judgment, if he shall be adjudged to be
This court in Commonwealth v. Douglas (i I Bush) overlooked the fact that the statute provides for two classes of bonds that might be executed before judgment. The one mentioned in section 3 conditioned for the appearance of the accused, and the other in section 5 conditioned “to pay such sums as may be adjudged against the accused.”
That the court in that case did not consider the provisions of the 5 th and 9th sections, and based the opinion upon the-10th section alone, is manifest from the language of the opinion, where it is said: “Section io of the General Statutes contains no provision requiring the accused to enter into bond after a trial and judgment when he had executed a bond before judgment." Even the 10th section, standing alone, does not authorize the construction given it' by the court in the Douglas case. The bond “before judgment,” there referred to, is of the same tenor as the one provided to be executed after judgment. It should be construed as if it read : “If the accused shall be adjudged to be the father of the child, and has not theretofore executed bond conditioned to pay the installments, he shall then do so, or be committed to jail.” The reasonable inference is, that when a statute prescribes the terms of a bond to be executed, in case no bond has been previously executed, the object and the terms of the two bonds are to be the same.
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded, with directions to dismiss the appeal.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.