Court Opinion

ID: 9654014
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:01:48.169333+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:04.470486
License: Public Domain

MANTON, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
The statute in question (title 18, U. S. Code, § 601; Rev. St. 1020 [18 USCA § 601]) provides that where any! recognizance in a criminal cause has been taken and there has been a forfeiture by breach of the eondi*686tion thereof, the court may, in' its discretion, remit the whole or any part of the penalty whenever it appears to the court that there has been no willful default of the party and that a trial notwithstanding can be had in the cause, and that public justice does not otherwise require the same penalty to be enforced.
“Willful default” of the party means willful default of principal, or the defendant, and not the surety. This has been uniformly held by the Circuit Courts of Appeals and the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. The reasons which are stated in such opinions sufficiently express my views. They are right in principle and in the construction of the statute. The judgment should be reversed on these authorities. United States v. Costello, 47 F.(2d) 684 (C. C. A. 6); United States v. Amer. Bonding Co., 39 F.(2d) 423 (C. C. A. 9); Weber v. United States, 32 F.(2d) 110 (C. C. A. 8); Skolnik v. United States, 4 F.(2d) 797 (C. C. A. 7); Fidelity & Deposit Co. v. United States, 293 F. 575 (C. C. A. 5); Henry v. United States, 288 F. 843, 32 A. L. R. 257 (C. C. A. 7); United States v. Robinson, 158 F. 410 (C. C. A. 4); United States v. Walter, 43 App. D. C. 468; United States v. Allen, 39 App. D. C. 383; United States v. Von Jenny, 39 App. D. C. 377.
I therefore concur in the result.