807.5. Bringing an indicted corporation into court.
When an indictment or a trial information is filed against any corporation, such corporation shall be arraigned thereon. Prior to arraignment the court shall proceed as follows:
1. The clerk of the court wherein such indictment is found or the information filed, or the judge, must issue a summons signed by the clerk or judge with the clerk’s or judge’s name of office, requiring such corporation to appear and plead to the indictment, at a time and place to be specified in such summons, such time to be not less than twenty days after the issue thereof. The summons may be substantially in the following form:
District Court, County.
The People of the State of Iowa vs. The A.B. Company,
You are hereby summoned to appear in this court at (naming the place) on (stating the day and hour), and plead to an indictment filed against you by the grand jury of this county, on the day of , charging you with the crime of (designating the offense, generally), and in case of your failure to so appear and answer, judgment will be pronounced against you.
Dated at the city of , the day of , .
C.D.,
Clerk of the District Court.
(or by order of the court)
2. The summons shall be served at least ten days before the appearance fixed therein, in the same manner as is provided for the service of an original notice upon a corporation in a civil action; and if the corporation does not appear or plead at the time and place specified in the summons, the court may proceed to trial and judgment without further process.
3. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as preventing the appearance of a corporation by counsel to plead to an indictment, with or without the issuance or service of the summons provided herein. And when an indictment shall have been filed against a corporation it may voluntarily appear and plead to the same by counsel duly authorized to so appear for it.
[C79, 81, §807.5]
