Citation Numbers: 182 Ky. 810
Judges: Settle
Filed Date: 1/21/1919
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/24/2022
Opinion of the Court bt
Affirming.
This appeal grew out of the forfeiture in the Lexington police court of a bail bond executed by one H. Green
At this juncture the appellánt, Jere Reagan, as chief of police of the city of Lexington, and on relation of the city of Lexington, filed an intervening petition setting up claim to the proceeds of the bail bond for the city and praying that it be adjudged entitled thereto. A general demurrer was filed to the petition of Reagan and the city by the Commonwealth, which the circuit court sustained and dismissed the petition. From the judgment entered in conformity to these rulings the defeated parties have appealed.
Section 3162 is as follows: “Said court may assess, in addition to fines or imprisonment, any sum in his discretion, not exceeding $3.00, as costs against any defendants when convicted of any offense; for which, if not paid, defendant shall be' committed to imprisonment in jail or workhouse, as in case of fines. All fines, costs and forfeitures shall be collected by the chief of police and paid into the city treasury, and a. duplicate receipt shall be given therefor, one of which shall be filed with the city auditor.” Obviously, these sections do not confer upon the police court of the city of Lexington jurisdiction to try and finally dispose of a case of felony. The powers they confer upon the police court are such as that court may exercise with respect to offenses committed in violation of ordinances of the city and within its corporate limits, or such other offenses as it may have jurisdiction to finally dispose of by its judgments.
The police court of a city of the second class acts in a dual capacity. In the trial of offenses against ordinances of the city, it judicially acts for the city, although the prosecutions or process may run in the name of the Commonwealth for the use and benefit of the city; and in all such cases the fines, forfeitures or costs adjudged or collected unless otherwise provided, go to the city and should be disbursed" as provided by the sections, supra. But in the trial of certain other cases involving offenses committed against statute or other laws of the Commonwealth, the police court acts in its judicial capacity for the latter - alone, and in such cases the lines, penalties, forfeitures and costs adjudged or collected, go to the Commonwealth.
Where a bail bond taken by the police court in a felony case is forfeited, the proceeds of such bond must be paid to the Commonwealth. Indeed, this is clearly shown by sections 58-94, Criminal Code; section 58 providing for the return of the forfeited bond, with the word “forfeited” endorsed on it, to the clerk of the circuit court of the county; section 94, subsection 1, providing that the court to which the bond is returned shall order summons against the bail and render judgment enforcing the forfeiture; subsection 2, that if the court fail to make the order the attorney for the Commonwealth may, at any time after the term, cause the clerk to issue the summons against the bail. If in a case like the one before us, the city is entitled to the proceeds of the forfeited bond, why should not the forfeiture, as in all offenses against the city ordinances, be enforced by the police court instead of the circuit court? On the other hand, the simple fact that the forfeiture must be enforced by the circuit court, even if there were no other reason to be urged, is, it seems to us, sufficiently persuasive to show the right of the Commonwealth to the proceeds of the forfeited»bond.
But there are yet other grounds sustaining the. Commonwealth’s right to the money. Section 1139, Kentucky Statutes, declares that: “All fines and forfeitures, which may be imposed by law, shall issue and vest in the Commonwealth. Except in cases where, by law, the whole or a part thereof, shall be given to a person or to some particular object, and may be recovered by civil procedure before any judicial tribunal having jurisdiction or upon indictment of a grand jury.”
It will also be found that section 2285, Ky. Stats., requires that all fines and forfeitures paid under judgments'of the circuit courts, without capias or execution, as well as all jury fees, etc., shall be paid directly to the trustee of the jury fund; and section 2286 makes it the duty of the latter to superintend and urge the collection of all fines and forfeitures going to the Commonwealth. The trustee of the jury fund does not receive fines or forfeitures imposed by the police courts or collected by the chief of police for violations of ordinances of a city.
Without further elaboration of the reasons that lead us to the conclusion already expressed, we think the Commonwealth is clearly entitled to- the proceeds of the bond forfeited in this case, and as such was the- judgment' of the circuit court, it is hereby affirmed, •