In a civil forfeiture case in the United States, the state is the plaintiff and a thing is the defendant -- in this case, the thing is $25,180 cash which was seized by police under suspicion of being involved in illegal activity. In legal terms, it is an "in rem" case (against a thing) as opposed to an "in personam" case (against a person). Here is the docket for a real case which happened after police seized money.