Court Opinion

ID: 9480912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:02:43.84518+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:00.027937
License: Public Domain

DAVID A. NELSON,
Circuit Judge, dissenting.
The record in this case establishes without contradiction that Lovy James Johnson ran a string of dope houses in Saginaw, and had done so for some years; that although Mr. Johnson and his wife, Lizzie Johnson, ostensibly had no reportable income, more than a quarter of a million dollars in cash was kept at their home, along with drug paraphernalia and a huge arsenal of pistols, rifles and shotguns; and that the presence within the home of the drug paraphernalia, currency and firearms was open and obvious to anyone living there.
Mrs. Johnson had repeated opportunities to file a verified claim asserting, pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881(a)(7), that her husband’s use of the home for illicit purposes was without her knowledge or consent, but neither Mrs. Johnson nor her agent, Maggie Crumpton, ever filed such a claim. On the contrary, Mrs. Johnson filed an amended claim (which was not properly verified) as late as August 23, 1989 — the very day of the hearing on the government’s motion for judgment — in which she again made no assertion that Mr. Johnson’s use of the property was without her knowledge or consent.
Leave to amend is to be freely given, under Rule 15(a), only “when justice so requires.” Justice did not require the district court to let Mrs. Johnson further amend her claim to state, under oath, something that would have been manifestly untrue. I do not believe that the district court abused its discretion in declining to allow a further amendment, and I would therefore affirm the judgment.