Court Opinion

ID: 9771752
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:52:36.271895+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:36.061511
License: Public Domain

CUMMINGS, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. Appellant, Ron Hill, is the surety on a bail bond executed on August 4,1994, whereby the principal, Raunel Granados Vences, bound himself to appear before the 54th Judicial District Court of McLennan County, Texas, to answer the felony charge of conspiracy to engage in organized criminal activity as proscribed by Section 71.02 of the Texas Penal Code. See Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 71.02 (Vernon 1994). The bond penalty was $50,000. Vences failed to appear in court on October 14, 1994, and Judgment Nisi was entered forfeiting the bond. This appeal is from a summary judgment whereby the court granted a remittitur of $10,000 and entered judgment against Ron Hill and his principal in the sum of $40,000.
I disagree with the majority’s last of five propositions, which states:
An affidavit establishing that a defendant was incarcerated in another state raises a fact issue sufficient to preclude a summary judgment forfeiting the bond after the defendant failed to appear for trial in Texas.
The majority apparently gleaned the above proposition from the holding in James v. State, 413 S.W.2d 111 (Tex.Crim.App.1967). I do not believe that the holding in James supports the majority’s proposition and I believe that their reliance is misplaced. In James the court had granted a summary judgment forfeiting bond against the appellant. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the summary judgment based upon the appellant’s affidavit which stated that the Sheriff of Potter County had released the appellant to a Governor’s Warrant of Extradition from the State of Mississippi after the Sheriff had approved the appellant’s appearance bond. James, 413 S.W.2d 111, 112. In the case before us now it was stipulated between the parties that Vences was confined in Federal Prison in Piedras Negras, Mexico on October 14, 1994, the date Judgment Nisi forfeiting the bond was entered. This case differs from James in that Vences went to a foreign country and there is no evidence that Vences was released to the Mexican government by the McLennan County officials. In my opinion, the appellant failed to meet his burden of proving his affirmative defense of exoneration in that he failed to present summary judgment evidence that Vences was released by the McLennan County officials to the Mexican government. I would affirm the summary judgment.