People v. Kay

In People v. Kay (1973) 36 Cal.App.3d 759, five persons were convicted of felony assault and felony battery in connection with a demonstration at a university hospital. The total amount of property damage was $ 40,356.97, and the trial court required each of the five convicted defendants to pay one-fifth of the losses. The appellate court held that such a probation condition could not stand. One of the reasons why the condition in Kay was invalid was that there were 123 demonstrators, and only 5 bore all the losses, which amounted to a substantial sum; 18 other defendants were convicted in municipal court of offenses arising from the demonstration and they were not required to pay anything by way of restitution. Moreover, the condition in Kay was not at all related to the acts (assaults) committed by the appellants, because there was no showing that the particular appellants in Kay had even been responsible for the property damage ( id., at pp. 762-763). Additionally, the trial court in Kay failed to consider whether the appellants were able to pay such a large amount (approximately $ 8,000 each) ( id., at p. 763). The Kay court, in remanding, stated: "On remand, the judge will have information about the present resources of appellants and of their prospects. He will take into account the entire situation, including the responsibility of other guilty parties, not only those who were convicted in the municipal court, but also the total number of demonstrators, because apparently it is impossible to determine who among them was responsible for any particular damage to the property. We ought not spell out in more detail our conclusions but rather to leave the matter to the judge's good discretion." (Ibid.)