Court Opinion

ID: 9512646
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:19:07.541392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:29.352965
License: Public Domain

*696Judge LANSING,
Specially Concurring.
The question raised by Smith concerning the proper valuation, for restitution purposes, of inventory stolen from a retail merchant is not susceptible to a pat answer. Idaho Code §§ 19-5304(c), 18-2402(11), which define value for restitution as “market value,” beg the question, “Which market?” Where the victim is a retail merchant, there are at least two potentially relevant markets — -the retail market in which the victim resells goods and the wholesale market in which the victim acquires the goods. I agree with the lead opinion that where a retailer’s inventory items have been stolen or destroyed, the correct valuation for restitution purposes will generally be the retail market value of the items. Smith’s argument — that the victim gains a windfall if the retail value is used because the victim retailer paid only the wholesale value to acquire the merchandise — overlooks other possible components of loss such as the lost opportunities for sales and a multitude of overhead costs that add to the retailer’s expense of acquiring and holding merchandise in inventory. Smith has not shown that restitution measured by wholesale value would fully compensate the victim here.
That is not to say that the list price placed on the item by the retailer will in all circumstances constitute the retail market value. Particularly for “big ticket” merchandise such as automobiles, the merchant’s list price and the true retail value may not be the same.
Further, although retail value may generally be the appropriate measure of value of destroyed or stolen merchandise of a retailer, it ultimately may not be the proper measure of restitution. Restitution may be ordered only “for any economic loss which the victim actually suffers.” I.C. § 19-5304(2). Therefore, a defendant should be given an opportunity to show that the retail market value is not an accurate measure of a victim merchant’s true economic loss. Smith had the opportunity but did not make that showing here. Consequently, the retail market value utilized by the district court as the measure of restitution is properly affirmed.