Whenever it appears that a person who has been admitted to a state institution and remains under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services does not have a guardian or conservator of the estate and owns personal property which requires safekeeping for the benefit of the patient, the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services may remove or cause to be removed the personal property from wherever located to a place of safekeeping.

Whenever it appears that the patient does not own property of a value which would warrant guardianship or conservatorship proceedings, the expenses of removal and safekeeping shall be paid from funds appropriated for the support of the institution in which the patient is receiving care and treatment; provided, however, that if the sum on deposit to the credit of the patient in the patients’ personal deposit fund exceeds the sum of three hundred dollars ($300), the excess may be applied to the payment of the expenses of removal and safekeeping.

Terms Used In California Welfare and Institutions Code 7288

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.

When it is determined by the superintendent, at any time after the removal for safekeeping of the personal property, that the patient is incurable or is likely to remain in a state institution indefinitely, then any of those articles of personal property which cannot be used by the patient at the institution may be sold at public auction and the proceeds therefrom shall first be applied in reimbursement of the expenses so incurred, and the balance shall be deposited to the patient’s credit in the patients’ personal deposit fund. All moneys so received as reimbursement shall be deposited in the State Treasury in augmentation of the appropriation from which the expenses were paid.

(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 24, Sec. 178. (AB 1470) Effective June 27, 2012.)