Case Name: DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, Appellant, v. FREDA STAUFFER, as Administratrix, etc., Respondent
Court: District Court of Appeal of the State of California
Jurisdiction: California
Decision Date: 1943-01-19
Citations: 56 Cal. App. 2d 699
Docket Number: Civ. No. 12241
Parties: DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, Appellant, v. FREDA STAUFFER, as Administratrix, etc., Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: California Appellate Reports, Second Series
Volume: 56
Pages: 699–709

Head Matter:
[Civ. No. 12241.
First Dist., Div. One.
Jan. 19, 1943.]
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, Appellant, v. FREDA STAUFFER, as Administratrix, etc., Respondent.
Earl Warren, Attorney General, Robert W. Kenny, Attorney General, and Lawrence S. Fletcher, Deputy Attorney General, for Appellant.
Hugh K. McKevitt and Joseph F. DeMartini for Respondent.

Opinion:
WARD, J.
This is an appeal from a judgment for defendant in an action against her as administratrix of the above entitled estate. The action is based upon her rejection of a claim filed against the estate under section 2223 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
On application by John L. Brues to the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, through the Department of Welfare of said city and county, he was granted old age security in the amount of $1,375, which covered a period commencing October 1, 1936, and ending February 15, 1940, the date of his death. He declared under oath at the time of making the application, and subsequently, that his assets were not in excess of approximately $80. During the above period, aid was temporarily discontinued for two months by reason of his ineligibility, and an amount of $350 was refunded by him when it was discovered by the authorities that for ten months he had been working and receiving income which rendered him ineligible for aid during that time. The total net amount received by him, therefore, was the sum of $1,025.
Upon the death of Brues, defendant was appointed and duly qualified as the administratrix of his estate, and notice to creditors was published, the first time of such publication being on March 21, 1940. In the inventory and appraisement filed on February 23, 1941, it appeared that decedent was the owner of certain shares of the common stock of the Commonwealth Edison Company of a value in excess of $946. On the 12th of March, 1941, plaintiff filed its verified preferred claim under section 2223 of the Welfare and Institutions Code in the sum of $2,050, being double the net amount of money so paid Brues during the period when his assets exceeded $500 in value. The claim was rejected, and this suit brought thereon. The judgment in defendant's favor was entered upon the conclusion of law that the claim filed "arises upon contract and is barred for not having been filed within the six months period after the first publication of notice to creditors of said estate," and it is upon this point that plaintiff appeals.
Under the Old Age Security Law (§§ 2000 et seq. of the Welf. & Inst. Code) a recipient of aid is entitled to have in his possession personal property of a value not to exceed $500 (§ 2163) and real property of an assessed value not to exceed $3,000 (§2164). The possession of assets in excess of the above amounts renders the recipient ineligible for such aid.
Section 2222- provides that if at any time during the continuance of aid the recipient becomes possessed of any property or income in excess of the amount allowed, he shall immediately notify the board of supervisors of the receipt and possession of such property or income. Any excess aid theretofore paid shall be recoverable as a debt by the state and county participating in the granting of such aid.
Section 2223 provides that "If, on the death of a recipient of aid under this chapter, it is found that he was possessed of property or income in excess of the amount allowed under the provisions of this chapter and that he has not disclosed the same to the board of supervisors, double the amount of the aid paid him in excess of that to which he was legally entitled may be recovered by the Department of Social Welfare as a preferred claim from his estate and upon recovery shall be paid in equal proportions into the treasury of the State and the treasury of the county participating in the granting of such aid."
Appellant contends that it was advised of the existence of assets in the Brues estate only after the inventory and appraisement therein had been filed, nearly a year after the first publication of notice to creditors. It further contends (1) that the above provisions of section 2223 create a statutory penalty; (2) that such penalty is not a contractual liabil ity witMn the meaning of section 707 of the Prohate Code and consequently need not be presented as a claim against an estate within the period of six months from the first publication of notice to creditors as required by section 700 of the Probate Code; (3) that the penalty provisions of the section do not create a liability within the lifetime of the decedent and for that reason also do not come within the purview of that section.
Respondent on the other hand contends that the obligation is in its nature contractual as between decedent and the State of California and the board of supervisors, hut that if it is in the nature of a penalty or is statutory, for which no claim need be filed in the estate proceedings within the six months period, any right to recover is barred by the statute of limitations (§340, subds. 1 and 2, Code Civ. Proe.) the' action not having been filed until March 20, 1941, over one year from the date estate proceedings were commenced (March 4, 1940).
The first question deserving consideration may be stated as follows: Is the right of recovery given by section 2223 of the Welfare and Institutions Code within the purview of the rule requiring certain claims against a decedent's estate to be filed within six months from the date of the first publication of notice to creditors or he forever barred. (Prob. Code, § 700, 707.) Probate Code section 707 applies in terms only to contractual claims, statutory liabilities not being included therein. (People v. Hochwender, 20 Cal.2d 181 [124 P.2d 823] ; 11A Cal.Jur., p. 718.) Section 2223 is of statutory origin and the right of recovery therein given cannot reasonably be said to he based upon any express or implied contract.
The right of the state, upon the death of a recipient of aid under the Old Age Security Law, to recover because of the recipient's failure to truthfully disclose in his application for aid the possession of property or income in excess of a given amount is penal in its nature. In construing a similar statute relating to orphans and other needy children (Stats. 1937-, chap. 369) as amended in 1939 (Stats. 1939, chap. 302), the court in County of Los Angeles v. Riley, 20 Cal.2d 664 [128 P.2d 537], denied a petition for rehearing, and modified the original opinion (County of Los Angeles v. Riley, 20 Cal.2d 652 [128 P.2d 537]) wherein it stated that "The obligation of the state . is an implied contract," to read: "The obligation of the state to reimburse counties for aid furnished by the latter to needy children is imposed by statute." In 21 R.C.L., p. 212, section 7, it is said: "It may be admitted that a penalty given by statute is technically a debt. It does not, however, arise on contract, but by operation of law. It is imposed as a quasi punishment for the violation of law, or the neglect or refusal to perform some duty to the public or individuals enjoined by law. Penalties are imposed in furtherance of some public policy, and as a means of securing obedience to law. Persons who incur them are, either in morals or law, wrongdoers, and not simply unfortunate debtors unable to perform their pecuniary obligations." In Western Mortgage etc. Co. v. Gray, 215 Cal. 191 [8 P.2d 1016, 80 A.L.R. 866], the distinction between a statute imposing a penalty, and one where the liability is contractual, is well set forth. In that case it was held that the statutory penalty abated at death, but under the present statute the penalty against the estate under section 2223 does not come into existence until after the death of its former owner. The citations submitted by respondent, of which People v. Osgood, 104 Cal. App. 133 [285 P. 753], is a fair example, are not in point. There the forfeited bail bond in a criminal ease, upon which the claim was based, was a contract.
While Probate Code, section 707, is not applicable, the demurrer and answer raise other objections based on time limitation, including that of Code of Civil Procedure, section 340, relative to a right of action given to the state upon a statute for a penalty, which must be exercised within one year.
Respondent's contention is based upon the assumption that the claim arises immediately upon the death of the pensioner. This assumption is not, as will be noted hereafter, entirely correct. Appellant argues that the correct interpretation of section 2223 is that its effect should be confined to cases other than where fraud is present, and that the penalty here involved is a punishment for fraud; that by analogy to cases of fraud the accrual of a cause of action such as is here involved is at the time of the discovery of the fraud, and that only then does the statute of limitations commence to run. Appellant admits that not only fraud but nonfraud actions may be instituted under the provisions of section 2223. Assuming that in a fraud "case the statute of limitations would not start until the discovery of the fraud, such a rule is not of benefit to appellant in the present action. It is conceivable that a pensioner in good faith might neglect to call attention to certain property in which he had an interest. Stock might stand in his name as trustee for the benefit of a relative, friend or business associate. In fact such a situation is claimed by respondent on appeal, although we fail to find evidence in substantiation thereof. However, the complaint fails to allege fraud. The complaint simply alleges: "That said decedent died on or about the 15th day of February, 1940, in the City and County of San Francisco, and at the time of his death it was found he was possessed of personal property in excess of the amount allowed a recipient under the provisions of the Old Age Security Law, during the periods alleged in paragraph II hereof, in violation of Section 2223, of the Welfare & Institutions Code. . . .; that said defendant refused, failed and neglected to file said inventory and appraisement within the time allowed by law." In the absence of allegations of fraud, the one year period (Code Civ. Proc., § 340) is applicable; not section 338, which refers to an action upon a liability created by statute, other than a penalty. It is true that section 2223 provides for recovery if on the death of a pensioner it is "found that he was possessed of property . . . in excess of the amount . . . disclosed . to the board of supervisors," etc. In the absence of allegations of fraud, an action based upon the discovery of the additional property must be brought within the one year period. It may be a hardship on the Department of Social Welfare that an action may be barred before its discovery of undisclosed property. To remedy such a situation, it would be necessary to write into the statute of limitation a provision that the time shall not start to run until the department has knowledge, actual or constructive, that there is undisclosed property. The enactment of such a provision, if advisable, is entirely a legislative function and not a judicial one.
In the present proceeding the filing of a claim was not necessary; but, assuming that it was, it was filed approximately a year after the first publication of'notice to creditors. The pensioner died on February 15, 1940. The administratrix was appointed on March 18,1940, and "thereupon duly qualified as administratrix." The rule in California is that the statute of limitations starts to run upon the issuance of letters and the qualification of the administratrix. Under the provisions of section 340, Code of Civil Procedure, the action brought March 20, 1941, was filed several days late.
The judgment is affirmed.
Peters, P. J., concurred.