failure to appear 

What a ghost or genie gets charged with if it doesn't materialize when commanded to do so.

In Shakespeare's play "Henry The Fourth", Glendower boasts that he has the power to "call spirits from the vasty deep", to which Hotspur sarcastically retorts, "Why, so can I, or so can any man --- but will they come when you do call for them?" He should have added, "And if they do not, canst thou prosecute them for 'failure to appear'?"

failure to appear by QuacksO October 7, 2020