Court Opinion

ID: 9727051
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:18:31.57146+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:33.151294
License: Public Domain

LEWIS, J.
I respectfully dissent. Whether viewed as a whole or otherwise, the disposition of the contempt proceedings included an order that Betty Lou Batey serve 15 days in custody for her failure to comply with prior orders of the court. That custody was not conditional. She could not avoid it by complying with or agreeing to comply with an order of the court. She had been “found guilty” and had served the 15 days. The fact she served it while awaiting her hearing does not change the fact she served the time. It was actual punishment under the order. Characterizing as “civil” a sentence of 15 days in custody for past conduct with no possibility of obtaining a release by complying with the orders of the court, in my opinion, contravenes the definition of what is a contempt that is criminal in character. The dignity or authority of the court was being vindicated by that commitment to custody. (See Morelli v. Superior Court (1969) 1 Cal.3d 328, 333 [82 Cal.Rptr. 375, 461 P.2d 655].) The fact Batey also received fines which she could avoid by future compliance with the orders does not change the fact she had to serve her 15 days. Batey’s service of time, the most onerous aspect of the contempt order, brings her case into the ambit of People v. Lombardo (1975) 50 Cal.App.3d 849 [123 Cal.Rptr. 755], which would bar the later prosecution because the contempt order was punitive. *1291For purposes of double jeopardy, it is of minimal relative significance that Batey was left with the ability to avoid payment of the fines by means of future compliance with court orders, whereas Lombardo did not because he had already paid the fine. As I read Lombardo, the fact the fine was paid, as an additive to the jail time, played no particularly important role in the court’s analysis. The fact the trial court’s contempt order “was punitive in nature” (50 Cal. App.3d at p. 854) furnished the foundation for the decision.
In my opinion it is inconsequential that the portion of the contempt order constituting the fine could be viewed as suspended or as coercive only, since I believe that when it is considered along with the jail order actually served, it also fulfilled a primary purpose which is both punitive and deterrent. (See Yates v. United States (1957) 355 U.S. 66, 74 [2 L.Ed.2d 95, 102, 78 S.Ct. 128], “The civil and criminal sentences served distinct purposes, the one coercive, the other punitive and deterrent.”)
The trial judge correctly analyzed the sentence to custody as punitive and correctly applied the law of double jeopardy. The order of the trial court should be affirmed.
A petition for a rehearing was denied August 27, 1986. Lewis, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Respondent’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied November 20, 1986. Bird, C. J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.