Opinion ID: 1770580
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State v. Manuel

Text: As the Court of Appeal noted, Manuel was a pre-trial proceeding. Therein, this Court concluded the state had shown probable cause to proceed with a forfeiture action against the vehicles. The defendant had filed a motion for release of the vehicles, the merit of which was before the court. However, noting the quasi-criminal nature of forfeiture, the Court did say at trial of the forfeiture proceedings proof beyond a reasonable doubt would be necessary. Manuel, 426 So.2d at 148. It is apparent a seemingly logical jump was made from the premise that the statute was quasi-criminal to the conclusion that all criminal constitutional protections apply. First, I have no doubt Manuel was correct in saying a forfeiture proceeding is quasi-criminal in that it penalizes the claimant, and its penalty can result in even greater punishment than the prosecution. Id. at 143. Obviously, the loss of an automobile and a significant sum of cash can be a great penalty. Nevertheless, upon reflection I would find another statement made in the same paragraph not to be entirely correct. The Manuel court said that the object of a forfeiture proceeding, like a criminal proceeding, is to penalize for the commission of an offense. Id. This statement is only partially true. An object, no doubt, is to penalize. However, an entirely separate object of the forfeiture proceeding exists. The forfeiture of the res used to further the illegal drug trade does more than punish. As I noted above, it also serves to deter further drug trafficking by taking part of the trafficker's means of committing subsequent acts. It is this second purpose which makes the nature of forfeiture quasi-criminal rather than entirely criminal. This Court tacitly recognized this fact in Manuel. A controlled dangerous substances forfeiture statute ... is, the Court said, a reasonable exercise of police power because it fosters the public interest in preventing continued illicit use of the property and in enforcing criminal sanction. Id. at 146. (emphasis added) This prevention of further drug traffic is an important exercise of the police power of the state and furthers the civil needs of the community. As noted in Schwegmann Bros. v. Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverages Control, 216 La. 148, 43 So.2d 248, 255 (1949), the police power allows: such reasonable conditions as may be deemed by the governing authority of the country essential to the safety, health, peace, good order, and morals of the community. Consequently, both persons and property are subjected to all kinds of restraints and burdens in order to secure the general comfort, health, welfare, and prosperity of the people of the state; everything contrary to the public interest is the subject of the exercise of the power. Two Louisiana cases [2] were cited in Manuel for the proposition that the object of a forfeiture proceeding is to penalize. Manuel, 426 So.2d at 143. They were State v. Billiot, 254 La. 988, 229 So.2d 72 (1969) and Cornman v. Conway, 178 La. 357, 151 So. 620 (1933). The facts of these two cases are entirely consistent with the premise that all penalizations are not entirely criminal in nature, but that some penalties might be considered an exercise of the civil police power. Cornman involved a statute allowing forfeiture of vehicles used to transport malt extract without the tax having been paid. The issue was whether a judicial hearing was needed to seize the property. The court held that it was. It cited E. Freund, The Police Power, §§ 525, 526 (1904), for the proposition that where an unlawful use of property may be punished by forefeiture [s]uch forfeiture is not an exercise of the police power, but of the judicial power; i.e., the taking of the property does not directly subserve the public welfare, but is intended as punishment for an unlawful act. Cornman, 151 So. at 622. The court contrasted the forfeiture statute with a statute which allowed an impoundment fee for towing an illegally parked cara statute which the court did not hold to be punitive, but was found to have been enacted to abate dangers to the public. Two things are interesting to note regarding Cornman. First, the court's example of a fee for towing could be construed as in part a penalty for the act of parking illegally. Admittedly, the penalty was probably not the primary purpose of the state. However, the existence of the penalty aspect did not require a criminal judicial proceeding. Second, the Cornman court views the forfeiture statute as entirely punitive in nature. Freund even suggests that it has no direct subservience of the public welfare. These observations were perhaps correct regarding the state's purpose in enforcing its malt tax requirements, but such suggestions would not be correct as regards the legislative desire to curb the drug trade via La.R.S. 32:1550. Similarly, the Billiot case cannot lend support for the conclusion that the sole object of all forfeitures is to punish the claimant. Billiot involved a criminal statute which made trawling for shrimp during the closed season a misdemeanor. The penalty provisions included (1) a jail sentence, (2) a fine, and (3) the forfeiture of the seines, trawls, tackle, etc. used in the violation. Manuel is correct to cite this case as an example of a forfeiture statute which is intended only as a penalty. This is not, however, the case with the forfeiture provisions in R.S. 32:1550, et seq., which specifically state that it is to be considered an in rem proceeding. La.R.S. 32:1551(A). Moreover, this statute is not a part of the criminal code, but is a provision in the Motor Vehicles section of the revised statutes. Cornman and Billiot are the only Louisiana cases cited in Manuel for the proposition that the object of forfeiture is to penalize for a criminal offense. In State v. 1971 Green GMC Van, 354 So.2d 479 (La.1977), however, these same cases were cited (along with Finance Security Co. v. Conway, 176 La. 456, 146 So. 22 (1933); Perry v. Butler, 8 So.2d 95 (La.App.2d Cir.1942); and Armbruster v. Behan, 3 Orl.App. 184 (1906)) for the similar proposition that a forfeiture proceeding, although technically a civil proceeding, is designed as a penalty for violation of a law. It is appropriate to examine these cases to see if they support the premise that the sole object of a forfeiture lays in its design as a penalty. Finance Security Co. involved the same malt tax statute as Cornman. A truck was seized for carrying untaxed malt, but the owner of the truck was in Mississippi and was not aware that the driver, who had possession of the truck only on consignment, was carrying untaxed malt. The court held the forfeiture statute was unconstitutional because it did not afford the owner notice and an opportunity to be heard. The court did not hold that the purpose of the statute was to penalize, but they did cite the same passage in Freund's The Police Power which was cited in Cornman. Perry merely stands for the proposition that, in all penal or summary proceedings for the divestiture of title to property, the law must not only be construed strictly but its substantial requirements must be closely observed as well. Perry, 8 So.2d at 97. It is a basic rule of statutory construction that penal statutes be strictly construed. This has never meant, however, that proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required. Armbruster involved the taking of $825.00 by the State because the money was used in illegal gambling. The court stated: In this statute, as in all other criminal statutes where the word occurs, forfeiture is synonymous with fine. Armbruster, 3 Orl.App. at 197. (emphasis added) But the court did not hold that all forfeitures are criminal in nature. Rather, the court distinguished between criminal forfeiture and civil forfeiture. For example, they cite Ex Parte Alexander, 39 Mo. App. 108, 109 (1890): The meaning of the word forfeit is to be determined by the connection in which it is used. When used in civil proceedings and in connection with the enforcement of civil rights, it contemplates an ordinary civil judgment which need not even be penal in its character; but when used in a criminal law it denotes a punishment for a statutory crime, the meaning of the word is equivalent to fine. The Armbruster court also cites United States v. 3 Tons of Coal, 6 Biss. 379 (E.D. Wis.1875), where Justice Dwyer discusses in an exceedingly learned opinion the difference between a forfeiture in rem under certain sections of the internal revenue laws, and a forfeiture as a punishment for a personal crime: I think I speak with accuracy when I say that these proceedings (forfeiture in rem under the internal revenue law) ... stand independent of and wholly unaffected by any criminal proceeding in personam. The forfeiture is not in an apt and legal sense a punishment for crime, even though the crime be committed when the forfeiture is incurred. The true test, I think, lies here. When the judgment of forfeiture necessarily carries with it and as part of it a conviction and judgment against the person for the crime, the case is of criminal character. But where the forfeiture does not necessarily involve personal conviction and judgment for the offense, and such conviction and judgment must be obtained, if at all, in another and independent proceeding, then the remedy, by way of forfeiture, is of a civil and not criminal nature. Armbruster, 3 Orl.App. at 198. The Armbruster court also cited Green v. Briggs, 1 Curtis (U.S.) 317 (1852), where the court stated that a case where [i]t is not possible to separate the proceedings ... against the property, from the proceedings against the person must be distinguished from a forfeiture resulting from particular circumstances attending property imposed sometimes with and sometimes without a conviction of the owner for crime. Armbruster, 3 Orl.App. at 197. Finally, the Armbruster court concluded: In our own State many statutes imposing forfeitures have been the subject of discussion and decision by the Supreme Court, and the line has been clearly drawn between penal statutes wherein forfeitures are imposed, and criminal statutes, where forfeitures are intended as a punishment for crimes. Id. at 203. In summary, the cases cited in Manuel and the cases cited in 1971 Green GMC Van for the same proposition do not fully support the idea that forfeitures (as quasi-criminal statutes in that they do penalize the claimant) are criminal in all aspects and should always be treated as criminal. Rather, as will be seen when I discuss both the federal cases cited in Manuel and their progeny, and the cases treating forfeitures in other states, the use of the phrase quasi-criminal is particularly apt because it recognizes that forfeiture proceedings remain in many respects civil in nature.