State v. Punio, SCWC-17-0000343

• Decision Date: 15 November 2018
• Docket Number: SCWC-17-0000343
• Citation: 429 P.3d 1229 (Table)
• Court: Hawaii Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Hawai‘i, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Joselyn Calixta PUNIO, Respondent/Defendant-Appellee, and James Scott Wei dba J & J Bail Bonds, Petitioner/Petitioner-Appellant, Real Party-in-Interest.

429 P.3d 1229 (Table)

STATE of Hawai‘i, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.Joselyn Calixta PUNIO, Respondent/Defendant-Appellee,andJames Scott Wei dba J & J Bail Bonds, Petitioner/Petitioner-Appellant, Real Party-in-Interest.

SCWC-17-0000343

Supreme Court of Hawai‘i.

November 15, 2018

William A. Harrison, Honolulu, for petitioner/petitioner-appellant, J & J Bail Bonds.

Brian R. Vincent, for respondent/plaintiff-appellee, State of Hawai‘i

(By: Recktenwald, C.J., Nakayama, McKenna, Pollack, and Wilson, JJ.)

SUMMARY DISPOSITION ORDER

Petitioner/Petitioner-Appellant James Scott Wei dba J & J Bail Bonds (J & J Bail Bonds), real party-in-interest, seeks review of the Intermediate Court of Appeals' (ICA) August 3, 2018 Judgment on Appeal, which affirmed the Circuit Court of the First Circuit's (circuit court) "Order Denying Application of Surety Providing Good Cause as to Why Execution Should Not Issue as to Judgment of Forfeiture."

We vacate and remand. When Defendant Joselyn Calixta Punio (Punio) made an oral motion to set aside the bail bond forfeiture, the circuit court¹ stated that "the bond company has to file a motion to set aside the court's prior action." Our bail bond forfeiture provision provides:

Whenever the court, in any criminal cause, forfeits any bond or recognizance given in a criminal cause, the court shall immediately enter up judgment in favor of the State and against the principal or principals and surety or sureties on the bond, jointly and severally, for the full amount of the penalty thereof, and shall cause execution to issue there on immediately after the expiration of thirty days from the date that notice is given via personal service or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the surety or sureties on the bond, of the entry of the judgment in favor of the State, unless before the expiration of thirty days from the date that notice is given to the surety or sureties on the bond of the entry of the judgment in favor of the State, a motion or application of the principal or principals, surety or sureties, or any of them, showing good cause why execution should not issue upon the judgment, is filed with the court.

Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 804-51 (2014) (emphasis added).

Under our bail bond statute, a "principal" includes a defendant. See State v. Diaz, 128 Hawai‘i 215, 223, 286 P.3d 824, 832 (2012) ; see also HRS § 804-41 (2014) ("At any time before the breach of the condition of the bond, the surety may discharge oneself by...