State v. Knight, 255 N.C.App. 802, 805 S.E.2d 751 (Oct. 3, 2017)

The trial court lacked statutory authority to reduce the bond forfeiture amount. After the defendant failed to appear, the clerk of court issued a bond forfeiture notice in the amount of $2,000. A bail agent filed a motion to set aside the bond forfeiture. However, the motion de did not indicate the reason for setting aside the forfeiture. A document attached to the motion indicated that the defendant was incarcerated. The Board of Education objected to the motion to set aside. Following a hearing, the trial court denied the surety’s motion to set aside, finding that it had not established one of the statutory reasons for setting aside the forfeiture. Despite denying the motion, the trial court verbally reduced the amount of the bond forfeiture from $2,000 to $300. The Board of Education appealed, arguing that the trial court lacked authority to reduce the amount of the bond forfeiture after denying the motion to set aside. On appeal, the surety did not argue that the motion to set aside should have been allowed; rather, it asserted that the trial court had discretion to reduce the bond forfeiture amount. The court concluded that the trial court did not have authority under G.S. 15A-544.5 to reduce the amount owed by the surety. The court reasoned that under G.S. 15A-544.5, the trial court may only grant relief from the forfeiture for the reasons listed in the statute, and the only relief it may grant is the setting aside of the forfeiture. Here, having denied the motion to set aside, the trial court had no authority to grant partial relief by reducing the amount owed on the bond.