Opinion ID: 2499996
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether RCW 9.94A.737(2) Was Retroactively Applied

Text: ¶ 13 Whether the legislature intended the statute to apply retroactively does not end the inquiry because it remains to be determined whether the statute was in fact applied retroactively to Mr. Flint. Prospective application of a statute occurs when the event that triggers or precipitates operation of the statute takes place after its enactment. Pillatos, 159 Wash.2d at 471, 150 P.3d 1130. Prospective application can be found even if the triggering event originates in a situation that existed before the statute was enacted. Id.; see In re Estate of Burns, 131 Wash.2d 104, 110-11, 928 P.2d 1094 (1997) ([a] statute operates prospectively when the precipitating event for operation of the statute occurs after enactment, even when the precipitating event originated in a situation existing prior to enactment (emphasis added)). ¶ 14 If a statute's application changes the legal effect of prior facts or transactions, then the statute's application is more properly characterized as retroactive. See State v. Varga, 151 Wash.2d 179, 195, 86 P.3d 139 (2004) (quoting State v. Scheffel, 82 Wash.2d 872, 879, 514 P.2d 1052 (1973)); State v. Blank, 131 Wash.2d 230, 248, 930 P.2d 1213 (1997); Burns, 131 Wash.2d at 111, 928 P.2d 1094; Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Wash. Life & Disability Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 83 Wash.2d 523, 535, 520 P.2d 162 (1974). However, a statute is not retroactive simply `because some of the requisites for its actions are drawn from a time antecedent to its passage.' State v. Belgarde, 119 Wash.2d 711, 722, 837 P.2d 599 (1992) (quoting Scheffel, 82 Wash.2d at 879, 514 P.2d 1052); see Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. 244, 269, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994). Nor does a statute operate retrospectively just because it upsets expectations based on prior law. Ludvigsen v. City of Seattle, 162 Wash.2d 660, 668, 174 P.3d 43 (2007); see Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 269, 114 S.Ct. 1483. ¶ 15 Expectations based on prior law must be distinguished from vested rights, however. A statute has retroactive effect if it takes away or impairs a party's vested rights acquired under existing laws. Pillatos, 159 Wash.2d at 471, 150 P.3d 1130; Pape v. Dep't of Labor & Indus., 43 Wash.2d 736, 740, 264 P.2d 241 (1953); In re Fotheringham's Estate, 183 Wash. 579, 586, 49 P.2d 480 (1935); see Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 268-69, 271-72, 114 S.Ct. 1483. The same is true if a statute's application increases liability for past conduct or imposes new duties or disabilities with respect to completed transactions. See Pillatos, 159 Wash.2d at 471, 150 P.3d 1130; Pape, 43 Wash.2d at 740-41, 264 P.2d 241; Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 269, 114 S.Ct. 1483. ¶ 16 These guiding principles have been generally summarized as meaning that to determine whether a statute operates prospectively or retroactively is to ask whether the new provision attaches new legal consequences to events completed before its enactment. The conclusion that a particular rule operates `retroactively' comes at the end of a process of judgment concerning the nature and extent of the change in the law and the degree of connection between the operation of the new rule and a relevant past event. Pillatos, 159 Wash.2d at 471, 150 P.3d 1130 (quoting Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 269-70, 114 S.Ct. 1483).
¶ 17 None of the principles mentioned above suggest that the statute's application to a person in Mr. Flint's position is a retroactive application. First, the triggering event for application of RCW 9.94A.737(2) is when a defendant is found to have committed violation(s) of conditions of community custody at a third violation hearing. It is at this point that the statute directs that the department shall return the offender to total confinement in a state correctional facility to serve up to the remaining portion of his or her sentence. RCW 9.94A.737(2). In this case this triggering event has its origins in a situation that existed before RCW 9.94A.737(2) was enacted, in that Flint was convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned for first degree robbery and possession of a controlled substance at the time the legislature amended RCW 9.94A.737(2) to add the challenged provision. But as explained, a law is not retroactive merely because some of the requisites for its application `are drawn from a time antecedent to its passage.' Belgarde, 119 Wash.2d at 722, 837 P.2d 599 (quoting Scheffel, 82 Wash.2d at 879, 514 P.2d 1052); see Pillatos, 159 Wash.2d at 471, 150 P.3d 1130.
¶ 18 Second, the statute's conflict with Mr. Flint's expectations does not make its application retroactive. Mr. Flint's third community custody violation hearing was held on February 12, 2009. He was found guilty by admission of several violations, including the failure to obey all laws by being in possession of drug paraphernalia on February 2, 2009. [4] Mr. Flint believes that under then-prevailing department practices, he would have been subjected, at most, to a 60-day period of confinement as a sanction for committing the third violation. But as explained, a statute is not retroactive merely because it upsets expectations based on prior law or practices. Mr. Flint's expectations do not lead to the conclusion that RCW 9.94A.737 was applied retroactively in his case. See Ludvigsen, 162 Wash.2d at 660, 174 P.3d 43; Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 269, 114 S.Ct. 1483. ¶ 19 A different conclusion would be required if application of the statute took away or impaired any vested rights under prior law. However, under the law prior to enactment of RCW 9.94A.737(2), Mr. Flint clearly had no vested right in remaining in community custody without being subject to a return to total confinement following a violation of the conditions of community custody. At the time that Mr. Flint committed his crimes in January and February 2002, RCW 9.94A.737(1) (1999) provided the department with the discretion to transfer an offender to a more restrictive confinement status if the offender violated any condition or requirement of community custody. [5] Thus, under the law as it then existed, Flint was subject to reincarceration on his original offenses for any violation of the conditions of community custody, within the discretion of the department, without a vested right to remain in the community.
¶ 20 Third, the statute's application in Mr. Flint's case did not increase any liability for past conduct or impose new duties or disabilities with respect to completed transactions, i.e., it did not attach new consequences to events completed before its enactment. See Pillatos, 159 Wash.2d at 471, 150 P.3d 1130; Pape, 43 Wash.2d at 740-41, 264 P.2d 241; Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 269, 114 S.Ct. 1483. Insofar as the original offenses are concerned, the statute does not increase the punishment. Mr. Flint's sentence for the robbery and possession offenses remains the same and no new term may be imposed under the amendment. ¶ 21 Although Mr. Flint has consistently referred to RCW 9.94A.737(2) as mandating a return to total confinement, in contrast to the former discretionary scheme, the characterization is simply incorrect. Prior to the 2007 amendment, RCW 9.94A.737(1) (2005) provided that upon a violation of any condition or requirement of community custody the department in its discretion could transfer the offender to more restrictive confinement to serve up to the remainder of his sentence, less credit for time served in community custody. After the amendment, RCW 9.94A.737(2) states that upon a third violation hearing the offender shall be returned to total confinement to serve up to the remainder of the sentence, less credit for time served in community custody, but it then explicitly authorizes the department in its discretion to decline to reincarcerate an offender if it determines that returning him to a state correctional facility would substantially interfere with [his] ability to maintain necessary community supports or to participate in necessary treatment or programming and would substantially increase the offender's likelihood of reoffending. ¶ 22 The department thus retains broad if not identical discretion to either reincarcerate the offender or continue community custody. The department could have chosen in Flint's case not to reincarcerate him upon a conclusion that reincarceration would impair his ability to maintain necessary community supports, participate in necessary treatment or programming, or increase his likelihood of reoffending. Prior to the enactment of the statute, the department had discretion to return him to more restrictive confinement upon a single violation of community custody conditions. Contrary to Flint's claim, RCW 9.94A.737(2) does not make mandatory what was formerly discretionary with regard to the time he serves in total confinement. ¶ 23 With respect to the community custody violations themselves, RCW 9.94A.737(2) does not affect available punishments. [6] ¶ 24 Thus, both before and after the statute's effective date, an offender released on community custody has been subject to reincarceration for up to the remainder of the offender's sentence on the convictions for the original offenses if the offender violates the conditions of community custody, with discretion lodged in the department to continue the term of community custody where appropriate. Neither the sentence for the original offenses nor available punishments for the community custody violations themselves have changed under RCW 9.94A.737(2). ¶ 25 We therefore conclude that RCW 9.94A.737(2) was not in fact applied retroactively to Mr. Flint. (1) The statute was triggered by an event postdating commission of his offenses, i.e., the statute was triggered when he was subject to a third community custody hearing, which resulted from violation of the conditions of community custody. (2) The statute did not interfere with any vested rights that Mr. Flint held. (3) It did not attach new consequences to events completed before its enactment, because punishment was essentially the same before and after the statute's enactment, both as to the original sentence and as to consequences for community custody violations. [7]