Court Opinion

ID: 9696074
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:35:02.400178+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:18.197052
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
dissenting.
The majority opinion summarily dismisses the. contention of a lack of due process; states that Fuentes v. *466Shevin, 407 U. S. 67, 92 S. Ct. 1983, 32 L. Ed. 2d 556, is not controlling; and points to the mobility of an automobile as apparently justifying the extraordinary confiscation here. Here the unattended vehicle had been parked on the street for a period of many hours. It was locked and the keys were in the possession of police officers. The car was searched with the consent of the owner and was seized upon the discovery of approximately two ounces of marijuana. The owner, denied knowledge of its presence. The record does not disclose any prosecution of anyone for an offense involving that marijuana except for this forfeiture proceeding.
In a very recent case involving almost identical statutes and also involving the seizure and forfeiture of an automobile in a drug case, the Supreme Court of Washington reached a directly opposite conclusion. See City of Everett v. Slade, 83 Wash. 2d 80, 515 P. 2d 1295 (Nov., 1973). The Washington statutes and the Nebraska statutes obviously stem from the same uniform source.
In the Washington case the State contended, as it did here, that the right to due process was not violated by the summary seizure because judicial review was provided for and the deprivation was only temporary because of the requirement of the prompt forfeiture action to follow. The Washington court disposed of those contentions by saying: “The contentions are not well taken. As the United States Supreme Court stated in Fuentes v. Shevin, supra, ‘If the right to notice and a hearing is to serve its full purpose, then, it is clear that it must be granted at a time when the deprivation can still be prevented. * * * (I)t is now well settled that a temporary, nonfinal deprivation of property is nonetheless a “deprivation” in the terms of the Fourteenth Amendment.’ ”
The Washington court held: “Due process requires that an individual be given an opportunity for hearing *467before he is deprived of any significant property interest, except for extraordinary situations where some valid governmental interest is at stake and justifies postponing the hearing until after the event; the opportunity for a hearing must be granted at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner, and the hearing must be appropriate to the nature of the case.”
It should be pointed out here also that although section 28-4,135, R. S. Supp., 1972, authorizes seizure of “all conveyances * * * which are used, or intended for use, to transport any property described in subdivisions (a) and (b) of this subsection,” it also contains a provision that such conveyances are to be released upon a showing by the owner that he had no knowledge that such conveyance was being used in violation of the act. Nevertheless, section 28-4,136, R. S. Supp., 1972, provides that it shall not be necessary for the State to negate any exemption or exception under the provisions of the act and provides that “the burden of proof of any such exemption or exception shall be upon the person claiming its benefit.” Such provisions in the case of the seizure and forfeiture of a vehicle place the burden of proof upon the owner to establish that the vehicle is not subject to forfeiture and relieves the State from proving that it is subject to forfeiture.
The majority opinion here would authorize the seizure without notice and hearing and the later forfeiture of any parked, unattended vehicle in which two ounces of marijuana was found, unless the owner of the “conveyance” could affirmatively establish to the satisfaction of a court at a later hearing that he had no knowledge that the substance was in the vehicle. That interpretation of the Nebraska statutes means that the mere presence of a small quantity of marijuana in an airplane, house trailer, automobile, camper, houseboat, or any other “conveyance” establishes the fact that the conveyance was used “to transport” a controlled sub*468stance, and authorizes the immediate seizure of the conveyance without notice or hearing, and its later forfeiture if a, court does not believe the owner’s testimony .that he had no knowledge of the presence of contraband. The Washington statute by contrast requires that the “transportation” be “for the purpose of sale or receipt” of the contraband. It should be noted also that under Nebraska statutes the transportation of controlled substances in itself is not a crime. But it nevertheless becomes the foundation for the statutory forfeiture involved here.
Until the ultimate decision on forfeiture, the owner is deprived of his conveyance regardless of what the evidence may disclose, at the hearing. Although “extraordinary situations” may justify the postponement of notice and hearing in respect to depriving an individual of a significant property interest, such situations must be totally unusual. There ought to be some showing that the seizure without notice and hearing was directly necessary to secure an important government or general public interest and that there was a need for very prompt action. See City of Everett v. Slade, suprai Those facts did not exist here. The judgment should be reversed.