Horner v. Curry

• Decision Date: 27 June 2019
• Docket Number: Supreme Court Case No. 18S-PL-333
• Parties: Jeana M. HORNER, et al., Appellants (Plaintiffs below) v. Terry R. CURRY, et al., Appellees (Defendants below)
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

125 N.E.3d 584

Jeana M. HORNER, et al., Appellants (Plaintiffs below)

v.Terry R. CURRY, et al., Appellees (Defendants below)

Supreme Court Case No. 18S-PL-333

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Argued: October 25, 2018

FILED June 27, 2019

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANTS: J. Lee McNeely, Cynthia A. Bedrick, Scott A. Milkey, McNeely Stephenson, Shelbyville, Indiana, Samuel B. Gedge, Wesley P. Hottot, Institute for Justice, Arlington, Virginia, Seattle, Washington

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEES TERRY CURRY AND THE MARION COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE: Curtis T. Hill, Jr., Attorney General of Indiana, Thomas M. Fisher, Solicitor General, Kian J. Hudson, Patricia C. McMath, Julia C. Payne, Deputy Attorneys General, Indianapolis, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEES CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY, JOSEPH H. HOGSETT, PAUL BABCOCK, AND BRYAN ROACH: Donald E. Morgan, Traci M. Cosby, Tara L. Gerber, City of Indianapolis Office of Corporation Counsel, Indianapolis, Indiana

ATTORNEY FOR AMICI CURIAE ACCELERATE INDIANA MUNICIPALITIES, INC. AND INDIANA MUNICIPAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION, INC.: Mark J. Crandley, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Indianapolis, Indiana

ATTORNEY FOR AMICUS CURIAE INDIANA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION: Kent M. Frandsen, Parr Richey Frandsen Patterson Kruse LLP, Lebanon, Indiana

Massa, Justice.

The Indiana Constitution imposes on the General Assembly a duty "to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all." Ind. Const. art. 8, § 1. To help finance this lofty goal, our constitutional framers established a "Common School fund," the principal of which "may be increased, but shall never be diminished." Id. §§ 2, 3. Among other sources of revenue, this Fund "shall consist" of "all forfeitures which may accrue." Id. § 2.

In implementing this constitutional command, Indiana's Civil Forfeiture Statute directs the transfer of proceeds from seized property "to the treasurer of state for deposit in the common school fund." Ind. Code § 34-24-1-4(d) (2018). But before these proceeds accrue to the Fund, the Statute permits the allocation of forfeiture revenue to reimburse law enforcement costs. Whether this cost offsetting is constitutional under article 8, section 2 has been "an unresolved question" by this Court. See Serrano v. State , 946 N.E.2d 1139, 1142 n.3 (Ind. 2011). Today, however, we answer that question in the affirmative.

Facts and Procedural History

In 2013, law-enforcement personnel seized two vehicles from Jeana and Jack Horner. The Marion County Prosecutor's Office filed a forfeiture action against the vehicles, claiming they had been used to transport marijuana. The Horners eventually recovered their vehicles after the underlying criminal charges were dismissed. Two and a half years later, the Horners and others sued, as "Indiana citizens and taxpayers," to "redress Marion County's profit-driven forfeiture program and to vindicate the public rights secured by Article 8 of the Indiana Constitution and the Civil Forfeiture Statute." Appellees' Supp. App. Vol. II, p. 6. In their claim against the Consolidated City of Indianapolis and Marion County and the Marion County Prosecutors Office,¹ Taxpayers sought declaratory and injunctive relief, specifically alleging that the Indiana Civil Forfeiture Statute unconstitutionally diverts forfeiture revenue from the Common School Fund (or simply, the Fund ).

The Statute in force when Taxpayers sued authorized the prosecutor to file a complaint requesting the court to offset forfeiture revenue for reimbursement of case-specific "law enforcement costs." I.C. § 34-24-1-3(a) (2011). If the prosecutor succeeded in showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the property was subject to forfeiture, the court would "determine the amount of law enforcement costs" and then order any remaining proceeds which exceeded those costs to "be forfeited and transferred to the treasurer of state for deposit in the common school fund." I.C. §§ 34-24-1-4(a), (d) (2002).

In 2018, however, the Indiana General Assembly amended the Statute. See Pub. L. No. 47-2018, § 3, 2018 Ind. Acts 270, 273–76 (pertinent section codified at I.C. § 34-24-1-4(d)(3) ). Under the new Statute—which became effective July 1, 2018—the prosecutor need not submit a formal request for the reimbursement of forfeiture-execution costs. See I.C. § 34-24-1-3. And instead of using the case-specific reimbursement scheme, as under the former law, the new Statute outlines a specific formula for distributing these costs. First, if the prosecutor's office employs "outside counsel" to handle the forfeiture, the proceeds pay for any attorneys' fees accrued. I.C. § 34-24-1-4(d)(3)(A). Next, one-third of the remaining proceeds "shall be deposited into the forfeiture fund established by the prosecuting attorney." I.C. § 34-24-1-4(d)(3)(B). Eighty-five percent of the residual balance then goes to either the law-enforcement office that executed the forfeiture or the state's general fund. I.C. §§ 34-24-1-4(d)(3)(C), (D). The remaining ten percent is "forfeited and transferred to the treasurer of state for deposit in the common school fund." I.C. § 34-24-1-4(d).

After the Governor signed the new Statute into law, but before it went into effect, Taxpayers moved to "amend or supplement their complaint" with a challenge to the new Statute. Appellant's App. Vol. II, p. 159. Both versions of the law, they argued, violated article 8, section 2 by offsetting any forfeiture proceeds intended for the Fund. The trial court denied this request and later granted summary judgment for the City, concluding that the Statute was constitutional because civil forfeitures "were unknown in 1851 when Article 8, Section 2, was added to the Indiana Constitution." Appellant's App. Vol. II, p. 172.²

Taxpayers appealed, requesting direct transfer to this Court under Appellate Rule 56(A).³ Because this "appeal involves a substantial question of law of great public importance," id. , we accepted jurisdiction.

Standard of Review

The constitutionality of an Indiana statute is a pure question of law we review de novo. City of Hammond v. Herman & Kittle Properties, Inc. , 119 N.E.3d 70, 78 (Ind. 2019). These statutes, however, come to us "clothed with the presumption of constitutionality until clearly overcome by a contrary showing." Whistle Stop Inn, Inc. v. City of Indianapolis , 51 N.E.3d 195, 199 (Ind. 2016) (internal quotations omitted).

Discussion and Decision

Taxpayers argue that "[b]oth versions of the Civil Forfeiture Statute violate the Indiana Constitution based on a straightforward application of Article 8." Appellants' Br. at 16. They insist that " ‘all forfeitures’ " belong to the Common School Fund, not just a percentage of those forfeitures. Id. (quoting Ind. Const. art. 8, § 2 ).

The City counters that the legislature may define the circumstances under which forfeiture proceeds vest in the Fund and that "awards of law-enforcement costs are not forfeitures" that accrue to the state. City's Br. at 16. The Prosecutor's Office adds that the scope of article 8, section 2 does not include civil forfeitures and that, even if it did, it confers no private right of enforcement. Instead, the Prosecutor's Office asserts, the General Assembly can authoritatively define article 8, section 2's scope. Prosecutor's Br. at 21.

I. Do Taxpayers have standing?

A threshold question for this Court is whether Taxpayers have standing to litigate their claim.

The doctrine of standing asks whether the plaintiff is the proper person to invoke a court's authority. City of Indianapolis v. Indiana State Bd. of Tax Comm'rs , 261 Ind. 635, 638, 308 N.E.2d 868, 870 (1974). Typically, "the party challenging the law must show adequate injury or the immediate danger of sustaining some injury." Pence v. State , 652 N.E.2d 486, 488 (Ind. 1995) (citing Frothingham v. Mellon , 262 U.S. 447, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078 (1923) ). The purpose of standing—along with the corollary doctrines of mootness and ripeness—is to ensure the resolution of real issues through vigorous litigation, not to engage in academic debate or mere abstract speculation. Id.

At a more fundamental level, standing implicates the constitutional foundations on which our system of government lies. By requiring a party to show a specific injury, the doctrine limits the judiciary to resolving concrete disputes between private litigants while leaving questions of public policy to the legislature and the executive. Indeed, standing "precludes courts from becoming involved ... too far into the provinces of the other branches." Jon Laramore, Indiana Constitutional Developments , 37 Ind. L. Rev. 929, 930 (2004). It is a vital element in the separation of powers, the disregard of which inevitably leads to "an overjudicialization of the processes of self-governance." Antonin Scalia, The Doctrine of Standing as an Essential Element of the Separation of Powers , 27 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 881, 881 (1983).

Unlike its federal counterpart, the Indiana Constitution imposes no "case or controversy" restriction on the "judicial power of the State." Compare U.S. Const. art. III, with Ind. Const. art. 7. But the express distribution-of-powers clause in our fundamental law performs a similar function, serving as a principal justification for judicial restraint. See Ind. Const. art. 3, § 1 (dividing the "powers of the Government ... into three separate departments; the Legislative, the Executive including the Administrative, and the Judicial"). And so, as with the other branches of government, our responsibility lies in preserving these boundaries.⁴ "Good fences make good neighbors," after all. Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc. , 514 U.S. 211, 240, 115 S.Ct. 1447, 131 L.Ed.2d 328 (1995).

At its core, then, the doctrine of standing asks: Where should the remedy lie? With the courts, or through the franchise? With judges, or with our politically-accountable elected officials? Not every case discusses...