Is a defendant's release under a bail contract an amendment to the bail contract?

We find that the court's imposition of conditions on the defendant's release was not an amendment to the bail contract. "A bail bond is in the nature of a contract between the government and the surety, in which the surety acts as a guarantor of the defendant's appearance under risk of forfeiture of the bond. [Citation.]" (People v. Amwest Surety Ins. Co. (1991) 229 Cal.App.3d 351, 356.) The surety's obligation is defined by its contract. Here, appellant's contract guaranteed the defendant's appearance "in the above-named court on the date set forth to answer any charge in any accusatory pleading based upon the acts supporting the charge filed against [him] and all duly authorized amendments thereof, in whatever court it may be prosecuted." The contract guaranteed that the defendant would make himself "amenable," or answerable, to the orders and processes of the court, but did not guarantee compliance with any such orders. In other words, the contract limited the surety's obligation to ensuring the defendant's appearance during the proceedings. The court's conditions of release, imposed directly on the defendant, were simply outside the scope of that contract.