People v. Tzitzikalakis

• Citation: 8 N.Y.3d 217,864 N.E.2d 44
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Appellant, v. Jimmy TZITZIKALAKIS, Respondent.
• Decision Date: 15 February 2007
• Court: New York Court of Appeals

864 N.E.2d 44

8 N.Y.3d 217

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Appellant, v. Jimmy TZITZIKALAKIS, Respondent.

Court of Appeals of New York.

February 15, 2007.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York City (Paula-Rose Stark and Mark Dwyer of counsel), for appellant.

Law Offices of Gerald L. Shargel, New York City (Ross M. Kramer, Gerald L. Shargel and Henry E. Mazurek of counsel), for respondent.

OPINION OF THE COURT

KAYE, Chief Judge.

Defendant was the principal of Foundation Construction Consultants, a company that completed a number of projects for the City of New York pursuant to a contract with the city's Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). These projects included courtroom construction at the Queens Criminal Court and lighting work at Two Lafayette Street in Manhattan. Between 1996 and 1998, the city paid Foundation approximately $2,700,000 for its work under the contract.

A subsequent investigation, however, revealed that defendant had submitted numerous false invoices purportedly reflecting amounts billed by subcontractors.

Defendant was charged with grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny in the second degree, and 26 counts of both criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree and falsifying business records in the first degree. Defendant pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the second degree and one count of falsifying business records in the first degree, in full satisfaction of the indictment. Supreme Court sentenced him to 1 to 3 years for grand larceny and ordered restitution with a conditional discharge for falsifying business records.

At a restitution hearing to determine the amount of the city's out-of-pocket loss, the sole witness was Christine Carl, a confidential investigator for the city Department of Investigation. Carl testified that, in order to be paid under the DCAS contract, defendant had to submit periodic payment requests with supporting invoices from subcontractors. Once a payment request with supporting documentation was received, the DCAS resident engineer would review the request and certify that the work had been completed and the materials supplied. If the engineering unit signed off on the request, the audits and accounts unit would review the request to ensure that the total payment matched the supporting documentation, and payment would be made.

Carl further explained that, as a result of her investigation, she determined that a number of defendant's invoices were falsified. In calculating the city's loss, she subtracted from the face amount of these invoices the actual costs reported to her by the subcontractors; where the subcontractor provided her with a range of actual costs (for example, $40,000 to $50,000), she subtracted the higher amount. However, in the case of two of the subcontractors — Vack Electric and Essex Glass — Carl included the full face amount of the invoices because neither company existed at the time it allegedly provided the goods or services reflected on the invoices. By Carl's calculations, the city's out-of-pocket loss was $340,143.

On cross-examination, defendant attempted to inquire as to whether the work and materials reflected on the invoices had in fact been provided, but the court precluded this inquiry. The court also refused to allow defendant's evidence of the fair market value of the materials shown on the invoices, explaining that it would accept only evidence documenting defendant's actual expenditures in connection with completing those projects. The court reasoned that the People were required to show only the face amount of the falsified invoices the city paid. The burden of proving offsets then fell to defendant and could be satisfied only through evidence documenting costs actually incurred. Thus, according to the hearing court, the prosecution's allowance of setoffs for the subcontractors' costs was an act of generosity, not a legal requirement.

Following the hearing, the court issued a written decision adopting the restitution amount proffered by the prosecution, $340,143. In that decision, the court reiterated its view that the People's burden of proof does not require any recognition of the value of goods or services actually delivered by defendant. That burden fell to defendant and was not satisfied. On appeal, defendant argued that the hearing court violated Penal Law § 60.27 and CPL 400.30 by improperly shifting the burden of proving the city's out-of-pocket loss to him. He also asserted that the court erred in precluding evidence of the fair market value of the goods and services he provided to the city under the contract. The Appellate Division agreed and ordered a new restitution hearing, noting that the result was dictated by the plain statutory language assigning the burden of proof to the People. We now affirm.

Restitution — seeking to ensure that an offender's punishment includes making the victim whole — has been a part of New York's criminal justice system since at least 1910 (see People v. Amorosi, 96 N.Y.2d 180, 183, 726 N.Y.S.2d 339, 750 N.E.2d 41 [2001]; People v. Fuller, 57 N.Y.2d 152, 157, 455 N.Y.S.2d 253, 441 N.E.2d 563 [1982]). While long available to crime victims, restitution has become more prevalent over the past quarter-century (see People v. Hall-Wilson, 69 N.Y.2d 154, 156-157, 513 N.Y.S.2d 73, 505 N.E.2d 584 [1987]), and courts since 1983 have been required to consider including restitution as part of the sentence imposed upon a person convicted of an offense (see id. at 157, 513 N.Y.S.2d 73, 505 N.E.2d 584; Penal Law § 60.27[1]).

Restitution is "the sum necessary to compensate the victim for out-of-pocket losses" (People v. Consalvo, 89 N.Y.2d 140, 144, 651 N.Y.S.2d 963, 674 N.E.2d 672 [1996]; see also Penal Law § 60.27[1]). Thus, courts must consider not only the amount taken by the defendant but also the value of any benefit received by the victim (see Lama Holding Co. v. Smith Barney, 88 N.Y.2d 413, 421, 646 N.Y.S.2d 76, 668 N.E.2d 1370 [1996]; see also United States v. Swanson, 394 F.3d 520, 528 [7th Cir.2005] [any value conferred on the victim from the criminal transaction "must be deducted from the restitution award"]; Karrell v. United States, 181 F.2d 981, 987 [9th Cir.1950] [the proper restitution amount is "the sum paid by the (victim) over and above the value of the thing he got"]).¹ Indeed, we have recognized that a restitution order must include appropriate "offsets or other factors which could properly reduce the total amount" (Fuller, 57 N.Y.2d at 158, 455 N.Y.S.2d 253, 441 N.E.2d 563 [internal quotation marks omitted]).

If the court is unable to make a finding as to the actual out-of-pocket loss based on the record before it, or if the defendant so requests, the court must conduct a hearing in accordance with the procedure set forth in CPL 400.30 (Penal Law § 60.27[2]). CPL 400.30(4) provides:

"At any hearing held pursuant to this section the burden of proof rests upon the people. A finding as to the amount of the defendant's gain from the commission of the offense must be based upon a preponderance of the evidence. Any relevant evidence, not legally privileged, may be received regardless of its admissibility under the exclusionary rules of evidence." (Emphasis added.)

At a restitution hearing, the People bear the burden of proving the victim's out-of-pocket loss — the amount necessary to make the victim whole — by a preponderance of the evidence (see People v. Horne, 97 N.Y.2d 404, 410-411, 740 N.Y.S.2d 675, 767 N.E.2d 132 [2002]; Consalvo, 89 N.Y.2d at 145, 651 N.Y.S.2d 963, 674 N.E.2d 672).² To meet that burden the People must show both components of the restitution equation, the amount taken minus the benefit conferred (see State v. Beavers, 300 Mont. 49, 53, 3 P.3d 614, 616 [2000]; Bowman v. State, 698 So.2d 615, 616 [Fla.App.1997]; State v. Tutor, 538 N.W.2d 894, 897 [Iowa App.1995]).³ To hold otherwise would contravene both the words and the intent of the statute, "to prevent the victim from enjoying an unjust enrichment, and the defendant from suffering under an unduly harsh and unreasonable restitution order" (Mem. of Attorney General, Bill Jacket, L. 1992, ch. 618, at 25).

Most often there will be no reductions, as criminals rarely confer a benefit on their victims, and the People may satisfy their burden simply by proof of the amount taken. In this case, however, it is undisputed that the city did receive benefit on the projects for which defendant submitted false invoices. The prosecution, therefore, in making a prima facie showing of the proper restitution amount was required to subtract from the face amount of the improper invoices the value of the benefit conferred in connection with the underlying projects.

Indeed, the prosecution did precisely that with respect to all but two of the falsified invoices. Carl testified that, in determining the restitution amount, she reduced the face value of the invoices by the actual cost of the services rendered by the subcontractors to whom the invoices related. For the Vack and Essex invoices, however, the People failed to introduce any evidence as to the value of defendant's work on those projects, although the DCAS resident engineer had certified that the work was completed when he approved the payment requests. The People might have satisfied that burden by calling a DCAS engineer or other qualified employee to estimate the benefit conferred, or the costs the city might incur for comparable work, but failed to do so.

We agree with the Appellate Division that legislative reform in this area would be useful, and thus echo that Court's call for a modification to allow hearing courts the discretion to place the burden of proving offsets on the party best suited to do so — here, undoubtedly, defendant. Until such amendment, however, this burden remains with the prosecution, as plainly specified in the statute. In that the hearing court...