County of Los Angeles v. State of California

Opinion

KINGSLEY, J.

The county appeals from a judgment denying its petition for a writ of mandate to compel reimbursement to it for funds expended under section 1026.5 of the Penal Code. We reverse the judgment with directions.

This case is an aftermath of the decision of the Supreme Court in

In re Moye

(1978) 22 Cal.3d 457 [149 Cal.Rptr. 491, 584 P.2d 1097]. Prior to that decision, a person committed to a state hospital after a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity, could be kept in confinement indefinitely, subject only to an annual proceeding for release in which proceeding he bore the burden of proving recovery. In contrast, persons committed to a state hospital under the mentally disordered sex offender act (MDSO) could not be confined for a period longer than the maximum term for the offense underlying their commitment, unless that confinement was extended by a proceeding under section 6316.2 of the Welfare and Institutions Code—a proceeding in which the burden of proof was on the People.

Responding to that decision, the Legislature, in 1979, by an urgency statute effective on September 28, 1979, enacted section 1026.5 of the Penal Code, limiting the maximum confinement of persons committed as criminally insane to the maximum term for the underlying offense and providing, for persons whose underlying offense was of a violent nature, a procedure for extension of confinement patterned after the MDSO provision.

Under article XIII B of the state Constitution and section 2201 et seq. of the Revenue and Taxation Code, the state has provided for reimbursement by the state of certain “mandated” costs incurred by a local agency. So far as is here pertinent, subdivision (a) of section 2207 pro

[764]

vides for such reimbursement for costs incurred as a result of “any law enacted after January 1, 1973, which mandates a new program or an increased level of service of an existing program.” The effect of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of section 2253.2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is to exclude laws apparently falling under section 2207 which merely affirm “for the state that which had been declared existing law by regulation or by action of the courts.”