People v. Lee CA1/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 24, 2022
DocketA159651
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Lee CA1/2 (People v. Lee CA1/2) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Lee CA1/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

Filed 6/24/22 P. v. Lee CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A159651, A159871 v. MIGLENA NIKOLOVA LEE, (Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. 51806082) Defendant and Appellant.

After a jury convicted Miglena Nikolova Lee of two counts of insurance fraud (Pen. Code,1 § 550, subds. (a)(1), (b)(1)), the trial court placed her on three years’ probation and ordered her to pay victim restitution, plus interest, and various fees. In these consolidated appeals, Lee argues that recent legislation entitles her to a reduction in her probation term and vacatur of certain fees and the interest payment imposed. Lee also challenges the restitution amount, arguing that a portion of it included attorney’s fees that were not recoverable for various reasons. We dismiss as moot Lee’s request to reduce her probation term in light of the court’s intervening order terminating her probation. We modify the judgment to strike the balance of unpaid administrative fees no longer authorized under recent legislation. As for restitution, we see no abuse of

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1 discretion in the amount awarded. Therefore, we affirm the judgment as modified and the restitution order. BACKGROUND Because the issues raised on appeal concern the probation term and the imposition of restitution and various fees, we need only provide a brief factual summary. On February 10, 2015, a San Pablo police officer responded to the scene of a reported burglary, where Lee told him she had returned home to find all of her and her husband’s property missing. Lee’s husband subsequently filed a theft claim under the couple’s renter’s insurance policy with Homesite Insurance (Homesite). The California Department of Insurance, which opened its own investigation into the theft claim, later found that the reportedly stolen items were in fact not missing, but either were in the possession of the Lees or stored by a friend on their behalf. On October 31, 2018, the district attorney filed the operative, first amended information charging Lee with two counts of insurance fraud, one by presenting a false claim (§ 550, subd. (a)(1)) (count one), and the other by presenting a false statement (§ 550, subd. (b)(1)) (count six). Lee’s husband was charged with nine counts of insurance fraud. On December 10, 2018, a jury found both Lee and her husband guilty as charged. On October 21, 2019, the trial court suspended imposition of sentence, and placed Lee on probation for a term of three years, conditioned in part on her payment of victim restitution in an amount to be determined at a further hearing. The court also ordered Lee to pay “the cost of [p]robation [s]ervices as determined by [p]robation.” Lee appealed from the October 21, 2019 order (A159651). On December 20, 2019, the trial court held the restitution hearing,

2 prior to which the People filed a brief requesting that Lee pay restitution to Homesite in the amount of $82,280.03. That amount consisted of (1) $18,000, which Homesite initially had paid Lee to settle the fraudulent theft claim against her renter’s insurance policy, and which she later had agreed to repay Homesite pursuant to a settlement agreement in an insurance bad faith lawsuit that the Lees filed against Homesite; and (2) $64,280.03 for investigative costs and attorney’s fees incurred by Homesite in the civil case. The court admitted into evidence an itemization of the investigative services and the billing records of Homesite’s attorneys.2 The court ordered Lee to pay, jointly and severally with her husband, restitution to Homesite in the amount of $82,280.03, plus ten percent interest per annum accruing from the date of sentencing, plus a 15 percent collection fee. Lee separately appealed from the restitution order (A159871). DISCUSSION Probation Term At the time of Lee’s sentencing, the trial court had the authority to impose a three-year probation term. (Former § 1203.1, subd. (a); § 550, subd. (c).) On January 1, 2021, while these appeals were pending, Assembly Bill No. 1950 took effect and reduced the maximum probation term for most felony offenses to two years. (Stats. 2020, ch. 328, § 2; § 1203.1, subds. (a), (m).) Following the passage of Assembly Bill No. 1950, we granted Lee’s unopposed motion for a stay and for a limited remand to allow the trial court to address Lee’s right to relief under amended 1203.1.3 On November 3,

2 We granted Lee’s motion to augment the record to include additional billing records of Homesite’s attorneys that the People submitted at the restitution hearing. 3 Afterwards, the Contra Costa County Superior Court determined it lacked jurisdiction to act on the order since the case had been transferred to

3 2021, the court terminated Lee’s probation after applying Assembly Bill No. 1950 retroactively to Lee’s case and reducing her probation term to two years, resulting in the expiration of that term in October 2021. The parties agree, as do we, that the termination of Lee’s probation moots her claim challenging the term of her probation. (See People v. Carbajal (1995) 10 Cal.4th 1114, 1120, fn. 5.) Since Lee’s probation term was terminated, we are unable to provide any effectual relief and therefore dismiss her request to reduce the probation term. Restitution Amount Lee next challenges the amount of victim restitution ordered. The trial court ordered Lee to repay Homesite the $18,000 it had paid her to settle the fraudulent theft claim against her renter’s insurance policy. Lee also was ordered to pay Homesite $64,280.04 in attorney’s fees that Homesite incurred in defending Lees’ lawsuit for insurance bad faith. Lee asks us to strike the attorney’s fees portion of the victim restitution award. We decline to do so. Section 1202.4, subdivision (f) provides in relevant part that “in every case in which a victim has suffered economic loss as a result of the defendant’s conduct, the court shall require that the defendant make restitution to the victim or victims in an amount established by court order, based on the amount of loss claimed by the victim or victims.” (§ 1202.4, subd. (f); see also § 1202.4, subd. (a)(1).) The restitution order “shall be of a dollar amount that is sufficient to fully reimburse the victim or victims for every determined economic loss incurred as the result of the defendant’s

the Alameda County Superior Court while these appeals were pending. We thus granted Lee’s request to modify our prior order and direct the Alameda County Superior Court to determine her eligibility for relief under Assembly Bill No. 1950. Judge Charles Smiley of the Alameda County Superior Court subsequently decided Lee’s eligibility for relief.

4 criminal conduct . . . .” (§ 1202.4, subd. (f)(3).) “Actual and reasonable attorney’s fees and other costs of collection accrued by a private entity on behalf of the victim” are among the determined economic losses properly addressed by a restitution order. (§ 1202.4, subd. (f)(3)(H).) “A ‘ “hearing to establish the amount of restitution does not require the formalities of other phases of a criminal prosecution.” ’ [Citation.] ‘Section 1202.4 does not, by its terms, require any particular kind of proof.’ [Citation.]” (People v. Kelly (2020) 59 Cal.App.5th 1172, 1181.) We review the trial court’s restitution order for abuse of discretion. (People v.

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Lee CA1/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-lee-ca12-calctapp-2022.