Jennings

Defendant Jason Jennings appeals from a postjudgment order to modify restitution. Jennings argues that the trial court erred in failing to apply the proceeds paid to his victim by his insurance carrier in a civil settlement against the amount of restitution ordered by the court in Jennings's criminal case. We conclude that the trial court should have offset Jennings's restitution obligation by his insurer's payments to the victim to the extent the payments were made to cover the costs of items included in the court's restitution order.

On September 27, 2002, Jennings lost control of his vehicle while driving in the City of San Diego on Fairmont Avenue toward the entrance to westbound Interstate 8. The vehicle crashed into a concrete bridge railing on the right side of the road and overturned. Jennings's passenger, Aleah Hockridge, was ejected. Jennings's vehicle eventually landed on Hockridge, causing her to sustain major injuries including head trauma, a fractured leg and clavicle, and multiple lacerations. The results of a preliminary alcohol screening and blood test indicated that Jennings had been driving with a .16 blood-alcohol level.

The San Diego County…

I.

INTRODUCTION

Defendant Jason Jennings appeals from a postjudgment order to modify restitution. Jennings argues that the trial court erred in failing to apply the proceeds paid to his victim by his insurance carrier in a civil settlement against the amount of restitution ordered by the court in Jennings’s criminal case. We conclude that the trial court should have offset Jennings’s restitution obligation by his insurer’s payments to the victim to the extent the payments were made to cover the costs of items included in the court’s restitution order.

II.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual background'

On September 27, 2002, Jennings lost control of his vehicle while driving in the City of San Diego on Fairmont Avenue toward the entrance to westbound Interstate 8. The vehicle crashed into a concrete bridge railing on the right side of the road and overturned. Jennings’s passenger, Aleah Hockridge, was ejected. Jennings’s vehicle eventually landed on Hockridge, causing her to sustain major injuries including head trauma, a fractured leg and clavicle, and multiple lacerations. The results of a preliminary alcohol screening and blood test indicated that…

People v. Bernal (2002) 101 Cal.App.4th 155, 165-168 [ 123 Cal.Rptr.2d 622 ], held that a court must offset against a defendant’s direct restitution obligation monies paid by his insurance company to his victim for losses subject to the restitution order. In the present case the majority extends Bernal by requiring an offset of monies paid to defendant Jason Jennings’s victim by what, in the context of direct restitution law and the record in this case, can only reasonably be described as his mother’s insurance company. I disagree with Bernal and I disagree with the majority’s extension of its holding. I, therefore, respectfully, dissent.

A. Bernal

Penal Code section 1202.4, subdivision (a)(1), provides: “It is the intent of the Legislature that a victim of crime who incurs any economic loss as a result of the commission of a crime shall receive restitution directly from any defendant convicted of that crime.” (Italics added.)

The statutory requirement of a defendant’s direct restitution to a victim rests on the concept that such direct payment will emphasize to the defendant the seriousness of the crime or crimes committed. As Bernal itself notes, “ ‘Restitution “is an…