People v. Seneca Ins. Co., S104487.

• Decision Date: 03 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. S104487.,S104487.
• Citation: 62 P.3d 81,129 Cal.Rptr.2d 842,29 Cal.4th 954
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. SENECA INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant and Appellant.

129 Cal.Rptr.2d 842

29 Cal.4th 954

62 P.3d 81

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. SENECA INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S104487.

Supreme Court of California.

February 3, 2003.

Nunez & Bernstein and E. Alan Nunez, Fresno, for Defendant and Appellant.

Steve Cooley, District Attorney, Brent Riggs and Fred Klink, Deputy District Attorneys, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Kathleen Bales-Lange, County Counsel (Tulare) and Lawrence A. Perkes, Deputy County Counsel, for California State Association of Counties as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.

BROWN, J.

In this case, we decide whether Penal Code¹ section 1166, which governs release of a convicted defendant on bail pending sentencing, applies in the case of a conviction by guilty plea. We conclude that section 1166 does not apply in this context. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

Factual and Procedural Background

A criminal complaint filed on July 30, 1999, charged Seung Hyun Noh (Noh) with seven counts of receiving stolen property. (§ 496, subd. (a).) On September 11, 1999, Seneca Insurance Company (Seneca) posted a bail bond to secure Noh's release from custody. The bond provided that Noh would "appear . . . to answer any [charge] in any accusatory pleading based upon the acts supporting the complaint filed against him . . . and if convicted, [would] appear for pronouncement of judgment or grant of probation," or if Noh failed to appear, Seneca would pay $70,000 to the State of California. On May 23, 2000, Noh entered a guilty plea on five of the seven charged counts. The court ordered Noh to appear on June 21, 2000, for sentencing and permitted him to remain free on bail. Noh failed to appear for sentencing, and the court issued a bench warrant and ordered Seneca's bail bond forfeited.

On November 15, 2000, Seneca moved to vacate forfeiture and exonerate bail. Seneca argued that, after Noh entered his guilty plea, the trial court should have proceeded in accordance with section 1166 before permitting Noh to remain free on bail. Seneca further asserted that section 1166 required the court to conduct an evidentiary hearing and make findings of fact with respect to five considerations, including public safety and the probability of Noh's failing to appear for judgment. Seneca argued the court's failure to comply with section 1166 was a jurisdictional error that exonerated bail by operation of law. In other words, because the court failed to follow the procedures set forth in section 1166—procedures that might have led the court to commit Noh to custody following his plea—Seneca contended it should not be held responsible for Noh's failure to appear. In opposition, the People claimed Seneca's reliance on section 1166 was misplaced because the statute governs only bail following a "verdict" in a contested trial and has no application to bail following a plea of guilty.

On December 13, 2000, after hearing argument and considering the legislative history of section 1166, the trial court denied Seneca's motion to vacate forfeiture and exonerate bail. Seneca appealed from that order (see People v. Wilcox (1960) 53 Cal.2d 651, 655, 2 Cal.Rptr. 754, 349 P.2d 522), and the Court of Appeal reversed. We granted the People's petition for review. We conclude that section 1166 does not apply where conviction is by guilty plea, and therefore Seneca's argument based on section 1166 fails. We do not decide whether a trial court's failure to comply with section 1166 in a case where that provision does apply would have the effect of exonerating bail by operation of law, nor do we decide whether compliance with section 1166 requires an evidentiary hearing with formal findings of fact.

Discussion

Section 1166, as amended in 1999, provides: "If a general verdict is rendered against the defendant, or a special verdict is given, he or she must be remanded, if in custody, or if on bail he or she shall be committed to the proper officer of the county to await the judgment of the court upon the verdict, unless, upon considering [1] the protection of the public, [2] the seriousness of the offense charged and proven, [3] the previous criminal record of the defendant, [4] the probability of the defendant failing to appear for the judgment of the court upon the verdict, and [5] public safety, the court concludes the evidence supports its decision to allow the defendant to remain out on bail. When committed, his or her bail is exonerated, or if money is deposited instead of bail it must be refunded to the defendant or to the person or persons found by the court to have deposited said money on behalf of said defendant." (Italics added.) Prior to the 1999 amendment, section 1166 stated only that, after conviction by verdict, an on-bail defendant "may be committed to the proper officer of the county." (Stats. 1935, ch. 657, § 5, p. 1814, italics added.) Thus, the former version of section 1166 gave the trial court unguided discretion as to whether to commit an on-bail defendant to custody or permit him or her to remain free. The 1999 amendment, however, requires the court to commit the defendant to custody unless, after considering five factors, the court concludes the evidence supports a decision to release the defendant on bail.

In general, a person is convicted either by verdict or by guilty plea, and the term "verdict" refers to a jury verdict. A finding of guilt in a criminal case is made only "by verdict of a jury, . . . by a finding of the court in a case where a jury has been waived, or by a plea of guilty" (§ 689, italics added), and a court's finding "shall be in substantially the form prescribed for the general verdict of a jury" (§ 1167). Section 1166 states that the section applies only to proceedings after a trial and verdict, not proceedings involving a guilty plea. The section makes no express reference to guilty Espleas; nor does it use a broad term, such as "conviction," that would more clearly encompass both guilty pleas and verdicts. Rather, the statute refers only to "general verdict[s]" and "special verdict[s]." (§ 1166.) In the same chapter of the Penal Code, the Legislature explains these terms: "The jury must render a general verdict, except that in a felony case, when they are in doubt as to the legal effect of the facts proved, they may, except upon a trial for libel, find a special verdict." (§ 1150, italics added.) "A general verdict upon a plea of not guilty is either `guilty' or `not guilty,' which imports a conviction or acquittal of the offense charged in the accusatory pleading." (§ 1151, italics added.) "A special verdict is that by which the jury find[s] the facts only, leaving the judgment to the Court." (§ 1152, italics added.) These specific descriptions of general and special verdicts simply do not encompass guilty pleas; rather, they refer to the findings of fact after a contested trial. Moreover, the organization of the Penal Code and the placement of section 1166 within that code strongly suggest that section 1166 does not apply in the case of a guilty plea.

Part 2 of the Penal Code, which begins at section 681, relates to criminal procedure. The statutes proceed in a logical, consecutive fashion through the stages of a typical criminal case, starting with the indictment (§ 940 et seq.) and then addressing pleadings (§ 948 et seq.), arraignment (§ 976 et seq.), pretrial matters (§ 995 et seq.), plea (§ 1016 et seq.), trial (§ 1065 et seq.), verdict (§ 1147 et seq.), sentencing (§ 1170 et seq.), judgment (§ 1191 et seq.), and appeals (§ 1235 et seq.). The provisions governing Noh's guilty plea appear in part 2, title 6, which relates to pretrial matters. In contrast, section 1166 appears in part 2, title 7, which relates to matters that arise after the start of trial and before judgment. Within title 7, chapter 1 governs challenges to the jury, chapter 2 governs the trial itself, chapter 3 governs the conduct of the jury after the cause is submitted to them, and chapter 4—which includes section 1166—governs the jury's verdict or findings. Chapter 4 first addresses the two types of verdict, general and special (§ 1150 et seq.), and explains what the trial court should do in the case of an ambiguous verdict (§§ 1161, 1162) or an acquittal (§ 1165). Then, in section 1166, chapter 4 describes what the court should do when the jury returns a "verdict . . . against the defendant."

This context clearly indicates that section 1166 refers to proceedings following a contested trial and verdict. When the drafters of the Penal Code reached the chapter in which section 1166 appears, they simply were not talking about pleas— they were talking about posttrial verdicts—and we would need to distort the logical structure of the Penal Code to relate section 1166 to pleas. Moreover, section 1166 works in tandem with section 1129, which appears in chapter 2 of the same title. Under section 1129, a trial court "may, in its discretion," commit an on-bail defendant to custody "at any time after his appearance for trial." (Italics added.) Under section 1166, that discretion becomes a presumption once the jury renders a verdict against the defendant; the court, then, must commit the defendant to custody, unless it finds the statute's five-part test satisfied. Viewed together, sections 1129 and 1166 have little to do with guilty pleas; they have to do with an on-bail defendant's custody status after the defendant appears for trial and before judgment.

From its context, section 1166 clearly relates to convictions by verdict, not guilty pleas. Seneca, however, argues that section 1166 is ambiguous because of the frequency with which criminal cases are now resolved by guilty plea. Seneca reasons that, with so many cases resulting in guilty pleas and comparatively few cases reaching the verdict stage, the Legislature could not reasonably have enacted a provision governing custody following a verdict and...