Court Opinion

ID: 9600900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:33:01.781053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:54.206985
License: Public Domain

*509SCHAUER, J.,
Dissenting.
I concur in the conclusion reached by Justice Carter. This is not a case in which relief tenably can be denied upon the ground that title is claimed through an illegal transaction. The claimants’ title here does not appear to have been derived from gaming ■ on the contrary, it is asserted and proved to exist entirely independent of the gaming.
The action of this court does not strike down but, rather, puts a premium on lawlessness. It accomplishes that which could properly be ordained, if at all, only on a forfeiture statute clear and unmistakable in terms. There is no such statute; the decision, therefore, invades the province of the Legislature.
The mischievous results which may follow are legion. Among other things it purports to give judicial protection to hijacking. Anyone may appropriate any object used directly or indirectly in an unlawful activity. A hostess entertaining at bridge or gin rummy or similar diversion may well find her furniture (card tables, chairs, etc.) appropriated and removed from her premises; she cannot recover them. A player may find his eyeglasses taken from him; he cannot recover them. It could not be burglary to uninvitedly and surreptitiously enter a private home for the purpose of appropriating such objects.
All of this is enacted by this court to no worthy end. The holding will not have the slightest deterrent effect on organized or professional gambling; it can be used to embarrass and injure inoffensive and substantial citizens in their homes.
The judgment should be reversed.