Court Opinion

ID: 9721546
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:02:12.147342+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:27.171141
License: Public Domain

DALSIMER, J.
I concur with the majority, but I feel it is necessary to add some additional comments. Much confusion has been engendered by the disparate statutes dealing with offenses relating to takings of automobiles. Currently a person who takes an automobile with the intent to permanently deprive the owner thereof can be convicted of violating either Penal Code section 487 (punished either as a felony or a misdemeanor) or Vehicle Code section 10851 (punished either as a felony or a misdemeanor). A person who unlawfully takes a car for temporary use can be convicted under either Vehicle Code section 10851 (a felony or misdemeanor) or Penal Code section 499b (a misdemeanor). The confusion among the statutes has been apparent for decades. (See, e.g., People v. Barrick (1982) 33 Cal.3d 115, 133-134 [187 Cal.Rptr. 716, 654 P.2d 1243]; People v. Thomas (1962) 58 Cal.2d 121, 127-130 [23 Cal.Rptr. 161, 373 P.2d 97], disapproved in part in People v. Barrick, supra, 33 Cal.3d 115; People v. Bailey (1946) 72 Cal.App.2d Supp. 880, 881-884 [165 P.2d 558].)
This case demonstrates one recurring manifestation of the confusion. A determination as to whether Penal Code section 499b is a lesser included offense within Vehicle Code section 10851 turns entirely on the happen*389stance of whether a violation of section 10851 is charged as taking and driving (see People v. Barrick, supra, 33 Cal.3d at p. 135) or charged as taking or driving (see People v. Delgado (1983) 149 Cal.App.3d 208, 211-212 [196 Cal.Rptr. 652]).
Unlawful takings of automobiles fall within a broad range of culpability; some are appropriately punished as felonies, others as misdemeanors. Surely the adjudication required should not rest upon the grammatical distinction between disjunctive and conjunctive parts of speech. The confusion among Vehicle Code section 10851 and Penal Code sections 487 and 499b should be eliminated by either clearly delineating the difference among the statutes (see, e.g., Recommendation and Study Relating To Overlapping Provisions of Pen. & Veh. Codes (Nov. 1958) 2 Cal. Law Revision Com. Rep. (1959) pp. E-l-E-21) or by replacing them with a single coherent “wobbler” statute (see Pen. Code, § 17). The punishment should be determined by the facts of the crime rather than by quirks of pleading.