Commonwealth v. Harvey

Citations

• 222 Pa. 214
• 70 A. 1093
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 682

Syllabus

<p>Bail — Recognizance—Forfeiture—Quarter sessions — Common pleas— Discretion of court — Remittance of forfeiture.</p> <p>The court of quarter sessions’ decree of a forfeiture of a recognizance is conclusive in proceedings on the recognizance in the court of common pleas. In the latter court the question of the breach of the recognizance cannot be raised.</p> <p>Under the Act of December 9,1783, 2 Sm. L. 84, the courts of common pleas have a discretionary power to remit a forfeiture of a recognizance, but the Supreme Court will not review the discretion of the common pleas in refusing to remit a forfeiture where the ground for relief alleged was that the defendant appeared at-court and remained until the indictment against him was ignored by the grand jury, and that it had been the uniform and unbroken practice in the county in question to regard the report of a grand jury, ignoring .the bill of indictment, as ipso facto, a discharge of the defendant; and the refusal to review such discretion will be considered by the Supreme Court even more proper where it appears that the case still continued under the control of the court below after the ignoring of the indictment, and was formally continued for action upon it by a subsequent grand jury.</p> <p>The averment in such a case as to the practice in the quarter sessions might have been taken into consideration by the court below as a reason for exercising its legal discretion in moderating or remitting the forfeiture, but it was not required to do so.</p>