Opinion ID: 36859
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Proportionality of Wallace's Airplane Forfeiture

Text: 13 In contrast to the situation in Bajakajian, as the district court determined—and Wallace does not contest—there is no applicable or analogous Sentencing Guideline for Wallace's unlawful operation of an unregistered airplane. Therefore the only current legislative guidance as to the gravity of Wallace's offense in monetary terms is the statutory maximum fine of $250,000. 2 Forfeiture of the $30,000 airplane is certainly not grossly disproportionate as compared to this $250,000 statutory maximum. 14 It may seem that comparison of Wallace's airplane value to the $250,000 statutory maximum is harsh in this case, since the $250,000 maximum fine is a default provision for any felony rather than a fine specifically provided by the statute defining Wallace's offense. See note 2, supra. Until 1994, the maximum fine under the predecessor to 49 U.S.C. § 46306(b) was $15,000. 49 U.S.C. app. § 1472(b)(2)(A) (repealed 1994). The 1994 amendment changed the maximum fine language to read fined under title 18 for the stated purpose of consistency with title 18. 49 U.S.C. § 46306 Historical and Statutory notes (citing H.R. Rep. 103-180 (1993)). There is no indication in the legislative history of the 1994 amendment that a substantial increase in the resulting fines was intended. It may be, for example, that Congress referenced the default fine provision in order to make the statute compatible with future treatment under the Sentencing Guidelines. 3 15 Even if the original $15,000 statutory maximum fine under the predecessor statute is used for guidance, however, forfeiture of Wallace's airplane is not grossly disproportionate. The $30,000 value of the airplane differs from this maximum by only a factor of two. 4 In Bajakajian, by contrast, the $357,000 forfeiture sought by the government was over seventy times the maximum fine of $5000 under the Sentencing Guidelines. Finding the forfeiture of Wallace's airplane to be excessive would require imposing the kind of strict proportionality that the Supreme Court expressly disavowed in Bajakajian. Bajakajian, 118 S.Ct. at 2037. 16 Not only is the value of the forfeiture in the instant case smaller than that at issue in Bajakajian, but we believe the gravity of the offense is greater. The offense in Bajakajian was a one-time transportation of currency out of the United States without declaring it. In the instant case, by contrast, Wallace owned the airplane for some seven years without registering it before it was seized by the government. He argues in his brief that [t]he function of the airplane was a source of transportation and joy to Wallace, that [t]he function that it [the airplane] performed was that it was Wallace's means of transportation and it was his sole tangible property of any value that provided him his joy in life. Flying is Wallace's life, and that [a]ll he has done with it is fly around the State of Arkansas and to Florida with it for a vacation.[ 5 ] Wallace has been flying safely for years. Obviously, he was operating an unregistered airplane on an ongoing basis, as opposed to the one-time violation in Bajakajian. Wallace does not argue that his failure to register the airplane was any sort of mere spur of the moment lapse in judgment or misplaced desire to avoid some bureaucratic delay on a single occasion (much less that there was any true inadvertence). In fact, Wallace testified that he had owned four other airplanes and had registered all of them. Furthermore, the fact that the most recent registration certificate on file for the airplane was with the Arkansas Forestry Commission increased the damage to the integrity of federal aviation safety and security systems caused by Wallace's operation of an unregistered plane. As noted in a federal agent's affidavit submitted by the government, airplanes registered to natural resource agencies are able to engage in low-level flight, below radar coverage, without attracting a law enforcement response, since such agencies are known to conduct low-level flights for research and survey purposes. 17 Wallace argues that he is similar to the defendant in Bajakajian in that he is not the type of offender (namely, a drug trafficker) at whom the aircraft registration statute is targeted. It is true that the 1988 introduction of criminal penalties and the forfeiture provision appears to have been motivated by drug enforcement concerns. See 134 Cong. Rec. 22,632 (1988). However, Congress clearly intended that forfeiture apply for violations not involving drug trafficking, as well. The forfeiture provision was described in House debate as giv[ing] law enforcement agencies the authority to seize aircraft when there are violations of the new criminal provisions whether controlled substances are involved or not. Id. That drug traffickers are not the only target of the statute Wallace was charged under is further evidenced by the existence of a separate subsection of the statute providing a longer maximum prison term when controlled substances are involved. 49 U.S.C. § 46306(c)(2). 18 Wallace further invokes other factors that courts have gleaned from Bajakajian, such as related illegal activities and the benefit reaped by the claimant contesting the forfeiture. See United States v. Lot Numbered One of Lavaland Annex, 256 F.3d 949, 958 (10th Cir.2001); United States v. 3814 NW Thurman Street, 164 F.3d 1191, 1197-98 (9th Cir.1999). Even to the extent that some of these factors may suggest a relatively low gravity for Wallace's offense, this does not make forfeiture of his airplane excessive. A lower offense gravity would suggest comparison of the forfeiture value to a fine level lower than the statutory maximum, as was done in Bajakajian by considering the Sentencing Guidelines' maximum fine. Bajakajian, 118 S.Ct. at 2038-39. But even when we compare Wallace's forfeiture to a reduced fine level such as the $15,000 maximum fine for the predecessor statute, the amount of the forfeiture is simply not grossly disproportional.