Case ID: tex-ct-app_19/html/0443-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Hurt, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

[No. 2027.]
    Neil McIntyre et als. v. The State.
    1. Scire Facias.— Judgment Nisi is fatally defective unless it states that the same will be made final unless good cause be shown at the next term of the court why the principal did not appear.
    
      2. Same — Bail Bond — Case Stated.— Neil McIntyre is the principal named in the body of the bond. The bond is not signed by the principal, unless Neil McIntyre and C. A. McIntyre be one and the same person. For aught that appears to the contrary, “O. A. McIntyre ” may be the signature of a surety on the bond, and if so, the judgment nisi and final should, as they do not, show what disposition of the case was made as to him.
    . Error from the County Court of Kaufman. Tried below before the Hon. J. E. Dillard, County Judge.
    The writ of error in this case was prosecuted from a final judgment on the forfeiture of the bond of ¡Neil McIntyre, bailed upon a charge of misdemeanor theft. The amount of the bond and judgment was $100.
    
      J. & Woods, for the plaintiffs in error.
    
      J. RL. Burts, Assistant Attorney-General, for the State. „
   Hurt, Judge.

The judgment nisi is fatally defective in this: it fails to state that the judgment nisi will he made final unless good cause be shown at the next term of the court why the principal did not appear. This is demanded by the statute (art. 441, Code Crim. Proc.), and has been held to be absolutely necessary by a number of decisions of this court. (Lindley v. The State, 17 Texas Ct. App., 120; Burnett v. The State, 18 Texas Ct. App., 283, and cases there cited.)

It appears from the body of the bond that ¡Neil McIntyre is the principal. The bond is not signed by ¡Neil Mein tyre, unless C. A. McIntyre is the same person. Upon this subject the record leaves us in doubt. Now, it is not necessary that the principal sign the bond, but, as the record fails to solve this doubt, and as C. A. McIntyre may in fact be a surety, the record must show what disposition was made as to him. There is no judgment nisi or judgment final against him, nor, as above stated, are we informed that he is the principal.

The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

Reversed and remanded.

[Opinion delivered November 25, 1885.]