Section 789

Citation: Section 789
Parent Document: Hale v. Morgan, 584 P.2d 512 (1978)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 1978-09-28
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1160324/hale-v-morgan/ ↗

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*401 A review of other civil penalties provided by California law emphasizes the harsh impact, approaching confiscation, which is imposed by section 789.3. The monetary assessments for these other forms of civil misconduct are usually made discretionary in amount. Generally, they are also limited either to a fixed multiple of actual damages, to a specified total amount per "violation" or to a fixed duration. For example, a maximum of treble damages may be recovered by one denied his rights to fair credit (Civ. Code, §§ 1747.60, 1747.70, 1812.9), by a consumer when a manufacturer or retailer fails to comply with statutory warranties (id., § 1794), by a utility which suffers malicious injury to its property (Pub. Util. Code, § 7951), or by one who suffers "wrongful" injury to his timber (Civ. Code, § 3346 [double damages if the injury is "casual and involuntary"]). A number of civil regulatory statutes carry a maximum "per violation" penalty. Examples include denial of civil rights through intimidation or violence, actual damages plus $10,000 (id., § 52, subd. (b)); housing discrimination, actual damages plus up to $1,000 per violation (Health & Saf. Code, § 35738); discriminatory lending and "red lining" by institutional lenders, up to $1,000 per violation (id., § 35822; see also Lab. Code, §§ 6427-6430; Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17536). One statute, Labor Code section 203, while imposing a daily penalty for a continuing failure to pay wages due at an employee's termination, nonetheless limits the penalty to 30 days.

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