Opinion
S216444
06-16-2016
PEOPLE v. HUBBARD (JEFFREY)
B239519 Second Appellate District, Div. 1
Opinion filed: Judgment reversed
Public officers face criminal liability under section 424 when they misappropriate public funds and when their control over such funds amounts to being charged with the funds' “receipt, safekeeping, transfer, or disbursement.” The statute does not make liability conditional on a public officer's possessing exclusive control over public funds, or unfettered discretion to decide on their disposition. Instead, it requires that the public officer have the sort of actual authority that confers some degree of material control over the funds' disposition. The evidence here supports the jury's conclusion that Hubbard had such control and was therefore “charged with the receipt, safekeeping, transfer, or disbursement of public moneys” - Hubbard owed a general and widely recognized duty to safeguard school district funds, his contract charged him with overseeing the “budget and business affairs” of the District, and he exercised his formal authority in explicitly directing his subordinates to make the payments at issue in this case on his behalf. As a result, we reverse the Court of Appeal's judgment and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Majority Opinion by Cuéllar, J.
-- joined by Cantil-Sakauye, C. J., Werdegar, Chin, Corrigan, Liu, and Kruger, JJ.