Court Opinion

ID: 9758027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:08:16.241933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:46.021116
License: Public Domain

QUINN, Associate Judge
(dissenting).
I believe that the motion for summary judgment was properly granted. Appel-lee filed a verified complaint alleging that funds owned by him and lawfully in his possession, which he deposited in a locker in Union Station, and for which he had a receipt, were removed without authority and turned over to the property clerk of the Metropolitan Police Department. He further alleged under oath that he was guilty of no violation of law of any kind with reference to said funds and had been charged with none. The District filed an unverified answer alleging “that the property in question may be the proceeds of crime.” This was the state of the record when the court granted appellee’s motion for summary judgment.
The majority opinion concludes that summary judgment is inappropriate at this time, that appellant’s denial of appellee’s affirmation under oath that he is the owner of the funds raises a substantial doubt as to the legal ownership. I voice this dissent in the belief that the majority has overlooked the primary purpose of a motion for summary judgment and the fact that in the absence of a verified answer, the verified complaint should be considered an affidavit in this case,1 and have treated the motion for summary judgment as nothing more than a motion for judgment on the pleadings. My colleagues have considered the verification in the complaint a *491gratuitous act by appellee and the most transparent general denial, a matter of substance.
The primary purpose of the summary judgment procedure is to pierce allegations in the pleadings which may indicate the presence of an issue of fact in order to show that no genuine issue of material fact exists. 6 Moore’s Federal Practice § 56.11 [3]. Trial by affidavit is not contemplated by Rule 56. The object “is to separate what is formal or pretended in denial or averment from what is genuine and substantial, so that only the latter may subject a suitor to burden of trial.’’ Reed Research v. Schumer Company, 100 U.S.App.D.C. 179, 243 F.2d 602 (1957). Ap-pellee has affirmed that he is the owner of the funds and entitled to legal possession, that he is guilty of no violation of law of any kind with reference to said funds and has not been charged with any violation. The District’s answer is a general denial. It does not allege on information and belief that the funds are the proceeds of crime. Its unsworn answer merely states that the funds may be the proceeds of crime. No one has intervened seeking to establish a claim to the funds. Ordinarily, unsupported general allegations or denials cannot defeat a motion for summary judgment;2 and although counter-affidavits are not required by Rule 56, the party resisting the motion cannot withhold his evidence until trial or seek the opportunity at trial to cross-examine the moving party’s witnesses in the hope of turning up something in defense.3 I think that it was incumbent upon the District to set forth in its answer some basis for its conclusion or at least to set forth in an affidavit under the provisions of Rule 56 (f) reasons why it was unable to present facts essential to justify its opposition.
As I view this case, the District, apparently having no proof of ownership in anyone other than appellee, now wishes to embark upon a fishing expedition. It has served appellee with interrogatories seeking the disclosure of the source of the funds, appellee’s past employment and sal-, ary, his past residences, criminal record if any, and the location and character of his bank accounts. Further inquiry is made-into appellee’s tax returns filed with the’ federal, state or local governments for the years 1956 through 1961, and by motion appellee is asked to furnish both local and federal tax returns for the last six years. The District has seized funds deposited by. appellee, and without charging him with’ the commission of any offense or even alleging that the funds are the proceeds of crime it has chartered a course clearly intended to trap him. I consider the District’s position untenable. On the record before us I do not believe the trial court had any other alternative than to grant the motion for summary judgment. I would affirm.

. Fletcher v. Norfolk Newspapers, 239 F. 2d 169 (4 Cir. 1956); see generally 6 Moore’s Federal Practice § 56.11 [3],

. Runkle v. Nong Kimny, 105 U.S.App. D.C. 285, 266 F.2d 689 (1959); Engl v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 139 P.2d 469, 473 (2d Cir. 1943); “When a party presents evidence on which, taken by itself, it would be entitled to a directed verdict if believed, and which the opposite party does not discredit as dishonest, it rests upon that party at least to specify some opposing evidence which it can adduce and which will change the result.” L. Hand, J., in Radio City Music Hall Corp. v. United States, 135 F.2d 715, 718 (2d Cir. 1943); see Piantadosi v. Loew’s, Inc., 137 F.2d 534, 536 (9th Cir. 1943).

. Proctor v. Sagamore Big Game Club, 265 F.2d 196, 201 (3d Cir. 1959); United States for Use of Kolton v. Halpern, 260 F.2d 590 (3d Cir. 1958); 6 Moore’s Federal Practice § 56.15 [3].