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Name: People v. Slattery
Case #: C055413
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 10/23/2008
Summary

A hospital that incurred costs treating the victim’s injuries is not entitled to restitution because the hospital is not a direct victim of the crime committed. (Pen. Code, § 1202.4, subds. (f) & (k)(2); People v. Martinez (2005) 36 Cal. 4th 384, 392.) Appellant pled guilty to elder abuse, and the court imposed a prison sentence and ordered appellant to pay victim restitution to a hospital that incurred $876 treating appellant’s mother’s injuries. The Court of Appeal struck the restitution order because the hospital did not qualify as a direct victim under Penal Code section 1202.4. The hospital was not the immediate object of the conduct, nor the entity against which the crime was committed. The hospital must recoup its losses through other means, such as a civil action against the mother’s estate. The court rejected respondent’s claim that the issue was forfeited because the claim falls within the unauthorized-sentence exception.