Case Name: Donna SCHNEIDER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2008-01-25
Citations: 972 So. 2d 1079
Docket Number: No. 5D07-204
Parties: Donna SCHNEIDER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: PERRY, B., Associate Judge, concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 972
Pages: 1079–1083

Head Matter:
Donna SCHNEIDER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 5D07-204.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Jan. 25, 2008.
James S. Purdy, Public Defender, and Susan A. Fagan, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Jeffrey R. Casey, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Ap-pellee.

Opinion:
GRIFFIN, J.
Appellant, Donna Schneider ["Appellant"] appeals an order of the lower court awarding $8,100.00 in restitution. We reverse.
Appellant was charged by amended information with organized fraud for stealing from her employer, Dr. Robert Kitos. Appellant entered into a best interest plea and was sentenced to one year of community control, followed by four years of probation. Appellant was also ordered to pay $8,100.00 in restitution for professional services incurred by Dr. Kitos and his wife, Melinda Kitos, to defend a pretrial defense discovery request for their 2001 and 2002 tax returns.
Prior to entering into the plea, Appellant had filed a motion for discovery and a subpoena duces tecum for the personal and business tax records of Dr. and Mrs. Kitos. The motion claimed the tax returns were needed to show that Appellant did not misappropriate the funds and that the Ki-toses actually wrote off those funds on their taxes. Because Dr. Kitos wished to protect his privacy and did not want the tax returns discovered, he hired private counsel and moved for a protective order to prevent disclosure of the tax records. At a hearing on the motion, the trial court ruled that form 4684 of the tax return for the tax year 2001 and the schedule C from both the 2001 and 2002 returns were discoverable, but the remaining portions of the returns were not discoverable.
At the restitution hearing, the State requested an award of the legal and accounting fees incurred by Dr. Kitos in prosecuting the protective order motion. The State argued that the fees were causally connected to the offense and that the costs were an indirect result of Appellant's crime. Appellant argued that the decision to hire private counsel was Dr. and Mrs. Kitoses' and was not brought about by Appellant's criminal conduct but by their own election to incur fees to protect their privacy.
The trial court ruled that the legal expenses incurred by the Kitoses were causally related to Appellant's organized fraud offense. We agree with Appellant that these expenses were not caused either directly or indirectly by the offense and reverse.
Section 775.089(l)(a), Florida Statutes (2006), provides that:
In addition to any punishment, the court shall order the defendant to make restitution to the victim for:
1. Damage or loss caused directly or indirectly by the defendant's offense; and
2. Damage or loss related to the defendant's criminal episode,
unless it finds clear and compelling reasons not to order such restitution. Restitution may be monetary or nonmone-tary restitution.
The term "victim" as used in this statute means "each person who suffers property damages or loss, monetary expense, or physical injury or death as a direct or indirect result of the defendant's offense or criminal episode_" § 775.089(l)(c), Fla. Stat. (2006).
To order restitution under the statute, the court must find that the loss or damage is causally connected to the defendant's offense. See Glaubius v. State, 688 So.2d 913 (Fla.1997); see also Hall v. State, 760 So.2d 972 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000); Cheek v. State, 700 So.2d 731 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997). Only those damages or losses which flow from defendant's criminal activity may be assessed as restitution. See Chapman v. State, 733 So.2d 1055 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999). For restitution to be deemed reasonable, it must bear a significant relationship to the offense of which the defendant is convicted, and one factor to be considered in this regard is whether there is a causal connection between the criminal conduct and the loss claimed by the victim. See L.H. v. State, 803 So.2d 862, 863 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). The causation and significant relationship tests involved in determining restitution for an offense work in conjunction with, and not independently of, each other. See § 775.089(l)(a), Fla. Stat. (2006); Bernard, v. State, 859 So.2d 560 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003).
In the First District Court of Appeal's decision in Boulais v. State, 706 So.2d 365 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998), the court held that investigative costs paid by an employer to an accounting firm, to insurance adjusters and to an office worker who was hired to help find files lost during the period of the defendant's employment were awardable. The court, however, rejected services contracted for after the crime was discovered and documented.
Lost wages and similar expenses of victims, including costs resulting from participating in court proceedings have been found to be improper for an award of restitution. See J.S. v. State, 717 So.2d 175 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998). In Martel v. State, 596 So.2d 100 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992), the Second District rejected a restitution award for travel and accommodation expenses the owner of the stolen property incurred upon returning home to Florida from North Carolina to investigate after learning of some of the thefts. The appellate court held that these expenses were too remote.
The State claims the legal fees incurred in this case are similar to investigative costs which are properly awarded as restitution. In support of its position, the State relies on Mayer v. State, 632 So.2d 678 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994) and Glaubius, 688 So.2d 913. In both of those cases it was held that investigative costs for the purpose of discovery and documentation of the crime were properly awarded as restitution. The present case, however, does not involve investigative costs. To the contrary, the issue in the protective order was what evidence was not needed, not what was needed.
Here, the fees awarded were not caused by the offense. The cause of the incurring of fees was the optional decision of Dr. Kitos and his wife to prevent disclosure of their tax returns. Tax returns are not privileged in Florida. See Fryd Constr. Corp. v. Freeman, 191 So.2d 487, 489 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966) (observing that copies of income tax returns not privileged and may be used in state court proceedings where relevant). Had Dr. and Mrs. Kitos not hired counsel and accountants, their tax returns may or may not have been ordered produced based on relevancy, but the professional fees they incurred did not flow directly or indirectly from the appellant's offense. The dissent contends that the expenditure of fees came about because the State refused to take action to protect the Kitoses' privacy. But the Kitoses' privacy was not the State's concern. The decision to try to avoid public disclosure of tax returns was the Kitoses. They could have produced the returns or even the portions found relevant by the court, but elected instead to oppose any production. Even so, they were only partly successful. The State necessarily argues, however, that Dr. and Mrs. Kitos are entitled to restitution whether they were successful in their motion for protective order or not. To award as restitution such expenses voluntarily incurred in the course of discovery in the criminal case is beyond the contemplation of the restitution statute.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
PERRY, B., Associate Judge, concurs.
PLEUS, J., dissents, with opinion.