Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/272/530/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 15:43:39+00:00

Document:
1. Proceedings to forfeit a motor boat under § 26 of Title II of the National Prohibition Act may be maintained even if the seizure of the boat was by a person not authorized, since subsequent adoption of the seizure by the government is retroactive. P. 272 U. S. 531.
2. The jurisdiction of the court in such a case was secured by the fact that the res was in the power of the prohibition director when the libel was filed. P. 272 U. S. 532.
Certiorari (271 U.S. 655) to a judgment of the circuit court of appeals which reversed a judgment of the district court (7 F.2d 189) dismissing a libel brought by the United States to forfeit a motorboat under § 26 of the National Prohibition Act.
This was a proceeding in the district court of the United States for the condemnation of the motorboat Ray of Block Island. The owners appeared as claimants and moved that the libel be dismissed on the ground that the facts alleged did not warrant a condemnation. The district Court granted the motion. 7 F.2d 189.
The circuit court of appeals reversed the decree. 11 F.2d 522. As there was a conflict of decisions between different circuit courts of appeals, a writ of certiorari was granted by this Court. 271 U.S. 655.
qualified, however, by the same court in the later case of United States v. One Studebaker Seven-Passenger Sedan, 4 F.2d 534.
The circuit court of appeals relied on the often quoted language of Mr. Justice Story in The Caledonian, 4 Wheat. 100, to the effect that anyone may seize any property for a forfeiture to the government, and that, if the government adopts the act and proceeds to enforce the forfeiture by legal process, this is of no less validity than when the seizure is by authority originally given. The statement is repeated by the same judge in Wood v. United States, 16 Pet. 342, 41 U. S. 359, and Taylor v. United States, 3 How. 197. See also Gelston v. Hoyt, 3 Wheat. 246, 16 U. S. 310. The owner of the property suffers nothing that he would not have suffered if the seizure had been authorized. However effected, it brings the object within the power of the court, which is an end that the law seeks to attain, and justice to the owner is as safe in the one case as in the other. The jurisdiction of the court was secured by the fact that the res was in possession of the prohibition director when the libel was filed. The Richmond, 9 Cranch 102; The Merino, 9 Wheat. 391, 22 U. S. 403. The Underwriter, 13 F.2d 433, 434. We can see no reason for doubting the soundness of these principles when the forfeiture is dependant upon subsequent events any more than when it occurs at the time of the seizure, although it was argued that there was a difference. They seem to us to embody good sense. The exclusion of evidence obtained by an unlawful search and seizure stand on a different ground. If the search and seizure are unlawful as invading personal rights secured by the Constitution, those rights would be infringed yet further if the evidence were allowed to be used. The decree of the circuit court of appeals is affirmed.

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