Ex Parte Stewart

74 So. 3d 944, 2011 WL 2573128
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJune 30, 2011
Docket1100600
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 74 So. 3d 944 (Ex Parte Stewart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte Stewart, 74 So. 3d 944, 2011 WL 2573128 (Ala. 2011).

Opinion

74 So.3d 944 (2011)

Ex parte Sarah H. STEWART, Circuit Judge, 13th Judicial Circuit.
(In re Ex parte Kevin Byrd (In re State of Alabama v. Kevin Byrd)).

1100600.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

June 30, 2011.

*945 Martha Tierney, asst. dist. atty., Mobile County, for petitioner.

Charles H. Jones, Jr., Mobile, for respondent Kevin Byrd.

Samuel Henry Welch, presiding judge, and Mary Becker Windom, J. Elizabeth Kellum, Liles C. Burke, and J. Michael Joiner, judges, Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, for respondents.

Luther Strange, atty. gen., and John C. Neiman, Jr., and Prim F. Escalona, deputy attys. gen., amicus curiae Attorney General Luther Strange, in support of the petitioner.

Barry D. Matson, Montgomery, amicus curiae Alabama District Attorneys Association, in support of the petitioner.

MAIN, Justice.

The Honorable Sarah H. Stewart, a circuit judge in the 13th Judicial Circuit, petitions this Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Court of Criminal Appeals to quash the writ of mandamus it issued to the circuit court by an unpublished order. Ex parte Byrd (No. CR-10-0035, Feb. 9, 2011), ___ So.3d ___ (Ala. Crim.App.2011) (table).[1] We grant the petition and issue the writ.

I. Factual Background

On December 4, 1995, Kevin Byrd pleaded guilty in the Mobile Circuit Court to first-degree assault. He was sentenced, pursuant to a plea agreement, to 10 years' imprisonment; that sentence was suspended, and Byrd was ordered to serve 180 days in "boot camp" followed by 5 years on probation and to pay $60,000 in restitution to the victim. After completing "boot camp," Byrd was released on probation. On March 5, 1998, the trial court ordered Byrd to begin making restitution payments of at least $75 per month. In March 1999, his probation was revoked because he had committed new offenses, *946 and he was ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence in prison. In 2002, Byrd completed his sentence and was released from prison.

In March or April 2005, the Mobile County District Attorney's Office began collecting the unpaid restitution pursuant to § 12-17-225 et seq., Ala.Code 1975. In August 2007, the Mobile County District Attorney's Office requested that the trial court conduct a hearing at which Byrd was to show cause why he should not be held in contempt for failing to have paid the court-ordered restitution. The trial court conducted hearings in January 2008, October 2008, May 2010, and September 2010, reviewing Byrd's compliance with the restitution order and adjusting Byrd's periodic restitution payments to meet his financial ability to pay. At the January 2008 hearing the trial court ordered Byrd to pay $100 per month in restitution and to pay $1,500 by April 15, 2008, and to bring his 2007 federal and state tax returns and a household budget to the next hearing date. At the October 2008 hearing the trial court ordered Byrd to pay $500 per month in restitution. At the May 2010 hearing Byrd challenged the trial court's jurisdiction; the trial court took the matter under advisement. On August 31, 2010, the trial court issued an order holding that it had jurisdiction over the restitution matters and scheduled a hearing, at which Byrd was either to provide evidence that he was indigent or to suggest a payment plan and the State was to provide an accounting of Byrd's restitution payments since sentencing. At the September 2010 hearing there was discussion of Byrd's income, assets, expenses, and payment history; on September 23, 2010, the trial court ordered Byrd to pay $200 a month in restitution and reset the matter for review on December 8, 2010.

On October 12, 2010, Byrd petitioned the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to set aside all orders respecting restitution entered after December 4, 2000, the date on which Byrd says his probationary term for the 1995 conviction expired, and to dismiss the proceedings. On February 9, 2011, the Court of Criminal Appeals granted the petition and issued the writ, directing the trial court to set aside its September 23, 2010, order because it lacked jurisdiction. The court, in its unpublished order, held as follows:

"In this case, Byrd had finished his term of imprisonment and was not on probation or parole. According to our holding in Dixon v. State, 920 So.2d 1122 (Ala.Crim.App.2005), Judge Stewart had no jurisdiction of the contempt action as she did not have jurisdiction of both the person and the subject matter. Nor could Judge Stewart, in 2010, modify a restitution order that had been entered in 1995. This petition is hereby GRANTED and Judge Stewart is directed to set aside her September 23, 2010, order for lack of jurisdiction. The State's remedies for collecting on delinquent restitution are set out in § 12-17-225.3; § 15-18-72; and § 15-18-78(a), Ala.Code 1975."

The trial judge then filed the present petition for a writ of mandamus with this Court asking us to direct the Court of Criminal Appeals to quash the writ of mandamus it had issued to the circuit court.

II. Standard of Review

"`Our review of a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals on an original petition for a writ of mandamus is de novo. Rule 21(e)(1), Ala. R.App.P.; Ex parte Sharp, 893 So.2d 571, 573 (Ala.2003). The standard for *947 issuance of a writ of mandamus is well settled:
"`"A writ of mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, and is appropriate when the petitioner can show (1) a clear legal right to the order sought; (2) an imperative duty upon the respondent to perform, accompanied by a refusal to do so; (3) the lack of another adequate remedy; and (4) the properly invoked jurisdiction of the court."
"`Ex parte BOC Group, Inc., 823 So.2d 1270, 1272 (Ala.2001) (citing Ex parte Inverness Constr. Co., 775 So.2d 153, 156 (Ala.2000)).'
"Ex parte McCormick, 932 So.2d 124, 127-28 (Ala.2005)."

State v. Jones, 13 So.3d 915, 919 (Ala. 2008).

III. Analysis

The ultimate issue presented by this petition is whether a trial court has jurisdiction over a proceeding involving a defendant who has failed to comply with a restitution order when the defendant has completed his or her term of imprisonment and is not on probation or parole. The trial judge contends that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred when it issued a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to set aside its September 23, 2010, order for lack of jurisdiction. The trial judge argues that the court has jurisdiction to enforce its original order imposing restitution; that the civil remedies for collecting restitution are not exclusive; that the cases relied upon by the Court of Criminal Appeals do not preclude the trial court's actions in this case because Byrd was neither found indigent by the court nor incarcerated for his failure to pay; and that the public-policy concern that victims receive restitution supports the trial court's authority to enforce restitution orders, regardless of whether the defendant has completed his or her term of imprisonment or probation.

The Alabama District Attorneys Association filed in this Court a brief as amicus curiae in support of the trial judge's mandamus petition, essentially presenting the same arguments.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Holderfield v. State (Ex parte Holderfield)
255 So. 3d 743 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2016)
State v. Estate of Yarbrough
156 So. 3d 947 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2014)
Hutchinson v. State
111 So. 3d 754 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
74 So. 3d 944, 2011 WL 2573128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-stewart-ala-2011.