Court Opinion

ID: 8936573
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-27 07:36:04.29056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:09:38.579023
License: Public Domain

VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
As I see it, the sole issue before this Court is whether appellants are entitled to a priority in the surrendered funds by virtue of their judgment levies and attachments. In answering this question in the negative, I see no need to become involved in the vagaries of the law of constructive trusts. Because appellants’ levies gave them no greater interest in the funds than Maloney had, Smith v. Amherst Acres, Inc., 42 A.D.2d 1038, 348 N.Y.S.2d 616 (mem.), modified on other grounds, 43 A.D.2d 792, 350 N.Y.S.2d 236 (1973) (mem.); Matter of Robbins, 74 Misc.2d 793, 795, 346 N.Y.S.2d 86 (1973); Eisenberg v. Mercer Hicks Corp., 199 Misc. 52, 54, 101 N.Y.S.2d 662 (1950), aff'd, 278 A.D. 806, 104 N.Y.S.2d 804 (1951), all we need decide is whether Maloney had a property interest in the money he had purloined. This issue, I am satisfied, must be determined by New York law. Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 344, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 2077, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976); Mitchell v. W.T. Grant Co., 416 U.S. 600, 604, 94 S.Ct. 1895, 1898, 40 L.Ed.2d 406 (1974); Aquilino v. United States, 363 U.S. 509, 513 n. 3, 80 S.Ct. 1277, 1280 n. 3, 4 L.Ed.2d 1365 (1960); Johnston v. Byrd, 354 F.2d 982, 984 (5th Cir.1965).
It is the well-established law of New York that “[n]o one shall be permitted ... to acquire property by his own crime.” Carr v. Hoy, 2 N.Y.2d 185, 187, 158 N.Y.S.2d 572, 139 N.E.2d 531 (quoting Riggs v. Palmer, 115 N.Y. 506, 511, 22 N.E. 188 (1889)), modified on other grounds, 2 N.Y.2d 882, 161 N.Y.S.2d 137, 141 N.E.2d 623 (1957); see Hofferman v. Simmons, 290 N.Y. 449, 454-58, 49 N.E.2d 523 (1943); United States v. Herzfeld, 271 F.Supp. 185, 188 (S.D.N.Y.1967); United States v. Pagan, 140 F.Supp. 711, 713 (S.D.N.Y.1955). Accordingly, because the money and jewels that Maloney surrendered were the product of his criminal activites, he had no property in which appellants could claim a priority by virtue of their collection efforts.