Definition
**Note on this entry:** "Ing bail" does not appear to be an independent legal term. The source fragment provided is a truncated excerpt from Bouvier's Law Dictionary that has been cut mid-word or mid-phrase — almost certainly a corrupted rendering of a longer headword such as "EXONERATING BAIL," "DISCHARGING BAIL," or a related bail-discharge concept. The fragment begins in the middle of a discussion about the formal mode of noting a discharge from bail obligations, references to a recognizance to appear on an indictment, and the effect of a quashed indictment on surety liability.
What follows is a reconstructed entry treating the subject matter of the source fragment: the discharge, exoneration, and release of bail and sureties.
**Exoneration of Bail / Discharge of Bail** refers to the formal release of a surety (bail) from the legal obligation undertaken when the surety guaranteed the appearance of an accused person before a court. When bail is exonerated, the surety's liability on the recognizance is extinguished — the bond or pledge posted to secure a defendant's court appearance is returned or the obligation cancelled.
The formal notation of this discharge is called an **exoneration**, entered on the court record to document that the surety's undertaking has been satisfied or otherwise terminated.
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Core Elements
The source fragment addresses two distinct bail-discharge situations that researchers should distinguish:
1. **Satisfaction by appearance**: When the defendant appears as required and the underlying proceeding concludes, the surety's obligation is fulfilled and bail is exonerated as a matter of course.
2. **Effect of quashed indictment on recognizance**: A defendant who gives a recognizance to appear on an indictment and not to depart without leave is not automatically released from that obligation — nor is the surety — merely because the indictment is quashed. The obligation runs to the court's jurisdiction over the person, not solely to the specific charging instrument.
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Why It Matters in Research
The source fragment here is almost certainly a digitization or transcription artifact. Researchers encountering "ing bail" in a Law Mind corpus search should treat it as a corrupted fragment of a larger headword — likely "Exonerating Bail," "Discharging Bail," or possibly a passage mid-sentence from the body of a bail-related entry in Bouvier's. Searching the full Bouvier's text under BAIL, EXONERATION, RECOGNIZANCE, and SURETY will recover the complete discussion.
The substantive point preserved in the fragment is historically significant: courts in the 19th century were divided on whether a surety on a recognizance remained bound when the underlying indictment was quashed or superseded. The fragment cites a New Jersey case for the proposition that quashing the indictment does not discharge the surety. This was not a universal rule, and researchers examining historical bail disputes should check the jurisdiction-specific treatment carefully.
The exoneration-of-bail concept also connects directly to modern bail forfeiture and remission proceedings. When a defendant fails to appear, bail is forfeited; when the defendant is subsequently produced or surrenders, courts may remit (return) some or all of the forfeited amount. Historical sources treat these as distinct procedures — exoneration (before forfeiture) versus remission (after forfeiture) — and conflating them produces errors in reading older case reports.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary addresses bail discharge and exoneration in the context of recognizance practice. The fragment identifies the formal entry of an exoneration on the record as the proper procedural mode, citing cases from Pennsylvania (5 Binn. 332), New York (1 Johns. Cas. 829; 2 id. 101, 220), Connecticut (7 Conn. 439), Maryland (1 Gill 529), and Georgia (2 Ga. 831) — a spread of authority indicating this was treated as a general common-law procedural rule rather than a purely local one.
The additional point drawn from 54 N.J.L. 393 — that a surety on a recognizance is not discharged by the quashing of the indictment — represents a harder-edged rule that would have surprised some practitioners. Bouvier's use of this authority suggests the rule was contested enough to be worth flagging explicitly.
Historical dictionaries generally do not cover the modern statutory bail reform framework (cash bail alternatives, pretrial services, detention hearings), which postdates them entirely. Researchers using Bouvier's for bail concepts should supplement with 20th-century sources for anything touching the Bail Reform Acts or constitutional excessive-bail doctrine.
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Jurisdictional Note
The effect of procedural events (indictment quashed, charges amended, case continued) on surety obligations varied by jurisdiction in the 19th century and continues to be governed by state statute and court rule today. Federal bail practice is governed by the Bail Reform Act of 1984. State practices differ substantially on forfeiture, remission, and exoneration procedures.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia:
- Bail and Bond — Types, Determination, and Conditions (criminal_196)
- Eighth Amendment — Excessive Bail and Pretrial Detention / Bail Reform Act (criminal_188)
- Bail Jumping and Failure to Appear (criminal_261)
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