Simmons v. James

• Citation: 467 F. Supp. 1068
• Decision Date: 30 March 1979
• Docket Number: No. 77-2162.,77-2162.
• Parties: Iley SIMMONS et al., Plaintiffs, v. James R. JAMES, Judicial Administrator and the State of Kansas, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

467 F. Supp. 1068

Iley SIMMONS et al., Plaintiffs, v. James R. JAMES, Judicial Administrator and the State of Kansas, Defendants.

No. 77-2162.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

March 30, 1979.

Richard C. Wallace, Wyandotte County Legal Aid Society, Kansas City, Kan., for plaintiffs.

Robert T. Stephan, Atty. Gen., by Janet Chubb, Asst. Atty. Gen., Topeka, Kan., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROGERS, District Judge.

This class action which challenges the validity of the Kansas "recoupment" statute, K.S.A. 1978 Supp. 22-4513, seeks declaratory injunctive and monetary relief. The action is brought under the federal civil rights statutes, and jurisdiction is conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 1343.

By order of August 10, 1978, Judge O'Connor certified the claims for declaratory and injunctive relief for class action treatment. The claims for compensatory and punitive damages were severed, and proceed as an individual action. According to plaintiff's complaint, the class "consists of all persons who have received free legal counsel pursuant to K.S.A. 21-4610, 22-4510, 22-4513, and are now being billed by the State of Kansas for that free legal counsel."

The challenged statute, K.S.A. 1978 Supp. 22-4513, requires the defendant James, Kansas' Judicial Administrator, to demand repayment from an indigent defendant for whom an attorney was provided as soon as the service has been paid for by the state. If no payment is made, a judgment is summarily entered by the Clerk of the respective District Court as any other civil judgment. The statute reads as follows:

22-4513. Same; liability of defendant to state for expenditures; notice and demand of expenditure, contents; certificate of abstract to clerk of district court; judgment, when; filing in other counties; executions, garnishment; dormant judgment, when; revivor; other expenditures from fund, in recovery actions for recovery by attorney general, limitation. (a) Whenever any expenditure has been made from the aid to indigent defendants fund to provide counsel and other defense services to any defendant, as authorized by K.S.A. 1976 Supp. 22-4510, such defendant shall be liable to the state of Kansas for a sum equal to such expenditure, and such sum may be recovered from the defendant by the state of Kansas for the benefit of the fund to aid indigent defendants. Within thirty (30) days after such expenditure, the judicial administrator shall send a notice by certified mail to the person on whose behalf such expenditure was made, which notice shall state the amount of the expenditure and shall demand that the defendant pay said sum to the state of Kansas for the benefit of the fund to aid indigent defendants within sixty (60) days after receipt of such notice. The notice shall state that such sum became due on the date of the expenditure and that the sum demanded will bear interest at six percent (6%) per annum from the due date until paid. Failure to receive any such notice shall not relieve the person to whom it is addressed from the payment of the sum claimed and any interest due thereon.

Should the sum demanded remain unpaid at the expiration of sixty (60) days after mailing the notice, the judicial administrator shall certify an abstract of the total amount of the unpaid demand and interest thereon to the clerk of the district court of the county in which counsel was appointed or the expenditure authorized by the court, and such clerk shall enter the total amount thereof on his or her judgment docket and said total amount, together with the interest thereon at the rate of six percent (6%) per annum, from the date of the expenditure thereof until paid, shall become a judgment in the same manner and to the same extent as any other judgment under the code of civil procedure and shall become a lien on real estate from and after the time of filing thereof. A transcript of said judgment may be filed in another county and become a lien upon real estate, located in such county, in the same manner as is provided in case of other judgments. Execution, garnishment, or other proceedings in aid of execution may issue within the county, or to any other county, on said judgment in like manner as on judgments under the code of civil procedure. The exemptions provided for in the code of civil procedure shall apply to any such judgment. If execution shall not be sued out within five (5) years from the date of the entry of any such judgment, or if five (5) years shall have intervened between the date of the last execution issued on such judgment and the time of suing out another writ of execution thereon, such judgment shall become dormant and shall cease to operate as a lien on real estate of the judgment debtor. Such dormant judgment may be revived in like manner as dormant judgments under the code of civil procedure.

(b) Whenever any expenditure has been made from the aid to indigent defendants fund to provide counsel and other defense services to any defendant, as authorized by K.S.A. 1976 Supp. 22-4510, a sum equal to such expenditure may be recovered by the state of Kansas for the benefit of the aid to indigent defendants fund from any persons to whom the indigent defendant shall have transferred any of his or her property without adequate monetary consideration after the commission of the alleged crime, to the extent of the value of such transfer, and such persons are hereby made liable to reimburse the state of Kansas for such expenditures with interest at six percent (6%) per annum. Any action to recover judgment for such expenditures shall be prosecuted by the attorney general, who may require the assistance of the county attorney of the county in which the action is to be filed, and such action shall be governed by the provisions of the code of civil procedure relating to actions for the recovery of money. No action shall be brought against any person under the provisions of this section to recover for sums expended on behalf of an indigent defendant, unless such action shall have been filed within two (2) years after the date of the expenditure from the fund to aid indigent defendants.

Another relevant statute is K.S.A. 1978 Supp. 21-4610(k) which authorizes a trial judge to impose recoupment as a condition of probation.

Plaintiffs' complaint challenges on multiple grounds the constitutionality of the recoupment statute under both the Kansas and United States Constitutions.

Plaintiffs' first cause of action alleges that the Kansas procedure for entering judgment under the recoupment statute violates due process under the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution and the 18th Section in the Bill of Rights to the Kansas Constitution in that it provides inadequate notice and opportunity to be heard before judgment is entered.

Plaintiffs' second cause of action alleges that the challenged statute, because it does not afford a hearing before rendition of judgment, denies plaintiffs a jury trial as guaranteed by the 5th and 7th Amendments to the United States Constitution and the 5th and 18th Sections of the Bill of Rights of the Kansas Constitution.

Plaintiffs' third cause of action alleges denial of equal protection in violation of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and the 1st Section of the Bill of Rights of the Kansas Constitution. The equal protection claim alleges that an indigent defendant who has a judgment entered against him pursuant to 22-4513 is not afforded the same protections as are afforded other individuals who have civil judgments rendered against them. Specifically, it is claimed that indigent criminal defendants are not afforded proper notice, hearing, jury trial rights, or rights of appeal which are accorded to civil defendants. Also, it is argued that K.S.A. 21-4610(k) provides that recoupment may be made a condition of probation, whereas a non-indigent defendant who has hired his own counsel and not paid him would never have payment of his counsel made a condition of probation. Finally, it is argued that the failure to determine who is financially capable of reimbursing the state and who is not is a denial of the right to equal protection.

Plaintiffs' fourth cause of action alleges a denial of the right to a jury trial, in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The theory of this argument is that an indigent defendant is deterred from exercising his right to a jury trial because that would increase the time his attorney would spend on the case and thus increase the amount which the indigent would ultimately have to reimburse the state. Thus, plaintiffs allege a "chilling" effect upon the right to a jury trial.

Plaintiffs' fifth cause of action alleges that the practical effect of 21-4610(k) allows imprisonment for failure to pay a debt in violation of the 16th Section of the Bill of Rights of the Kansas Constitution and the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs allege that continuing indigency could prevent a defendant from receiving probation conditioned upon reimbursement under subsection (k) of 21-4610.

Plaintiffs' sixth cause of action alleges that K.S.A. 1978 Supp. 21-4610(k) allows the State of Kansas to use conditions of probation as a "collection device" to force payment of a debt allegedly in violation of the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, which is guaranteed by the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution and the 9th Section of the Bill of Rights of the Kansas Constitution.

Plaintiffs' seventh cause of action argues that 22-4513 is unconstitutional because it places a needless burden upon the indigent defendant's 6th Amendment right to counsel. Plaintiffs rely upon this Court's opinion in Strange v. James, 323 F.Supp. 1230 (1971), aff'd on other grounds, 407 U.S. 128, 92 S.Ct. 2027, 32 L.Ed.2d 600 (1972).

Plaintiffs' eighth cause of action attempts to state a basis for punitive damages in that it is alleged that defendants, by their acts...