U.S.A. v. Minor

• Decision Date: 04 May 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-6047,99-6047
• Citation: 228 F.3d 352
• Parties: (4th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CURTIS BERNARD MINOR, Defendant-Appellant. . Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 352

228 F.3d 352 (4th Cir. 2000)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CURTIS BERNARD MINOR, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 99-6047.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT.

Argued: May 4, 2000.

Decided: September 13, 2000.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Winston-Salem.

N. Carlton Tilley, Jr., Chief District Judge. (CR-91-201) COUNSEL ARGUED: James Richard Glover, GLOVER & PETERSEN, P.A., Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for Appellant. Michael Francis Joseph, Assistant United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Walter C. Holton, Jr., United States Attorney, Lynne P. Klauer, Assistant United States Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Before WILKINS, MOTZ, and KING, Circuit Judges.

Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge Motz wrote the opinion, in which Judge Wilkins and Judge King joined.

OPINION

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge:

This case requires us to decide whether the United States provided adequate notice to a prisoner in government custody before it declared property owned by that prisoner administratively forfeited. The prisoner, Curtis Bernard Minor, brought this action, seeking return of $5214 in currency seized from his residence after his arrest in 1991. We hold that Minor did not receive adequate notice of the administrative forfeiture and vacate the district court's contrary holding, but because the record is unclear as to when Minor did learn of the forfeiture, we remand for a determination of whether the statute of limitations nonetheless bars the present action.

I.

On July 30, 1991, federal marshals and Winston-Salem police officers arrested Minor outside of his home for various parole violations. The officers took Minor into custody, where he has remained continuously since his arrest.

During a protective sweep of Minor's house incident to his arrest for the parole violations, the officers observed a quantity of cocaine, a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, and currency totaling $5214. After Minor refused to grant the officers permission to search the house, the officers obtained a search warrant and returned later to seize the drugs, gun, and currency. On November 5, 1991, Minor entered a plea of guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and to having used and carried a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.¹

In October 1991, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) initiated administrative forfeiture of the currency that had been found in Minor's residence. Pursuant to summary procedures set forth in 19 U.S.C. SS 1602-19 (1994 & Supp. IV 1998), the United States may, without resort to judicial proceedings, issue a declaration of forfeiture for property worth less than $500,000 that is otherwise subject to criminal forfeiture. See 21 U.S.C. S 881(d) (1994) (providing that summary forfeitures under drug laws will be governed by provisions of law applicable to such forfeitures under customs laws). The summary procedures provide, among other things, that the government must publish notice of its intention to declare forfeiture of the seized property and must provide written notice to interested parties. See 19 U.S.C. S 1607. The government may declare the property forfeited if, within 20 days of the first publication of the notice, no person files a claim for the property. See id. S 1609. If a claim is filed, the government may seek forfeiture of the property only through judicial proceedings. See id. S 1608.

The DEA published notice of its intention to declare forfeiture of the $5214 in USA Today for three successive weeks in October and November 1991. On October 21, the DEA mailed three written notices of the forfeiture. Notwithstanding the fact that Minor was in government custody, the DEA sent two of these notices to Minor's residence, one addressed to Minor himself, the other to his wife, Sheila Minor, who signed postal receipts for both notices on November 13. The third notice was addressed to Minor at the Forsyth County Jail in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On November 18, this third notice was returned to the DEA's forfeiture office marked "RETURN TO SENDER."

Although Minor was in state custody for a brief period after his arrest, the record indicates that he has been in federal custody continuously since at least September 17, 1991. The record does not dis- close precisely where Minor was incarcerated in October and November 1991, but the government does not dispute Minor's assertion that he was held in federal custody and not in the Forsyth County Jail during this period. Moreover, in accordance with the magistrate's detention order, the United States was able to retrieve Minor for his October 1991 arraignment in federal court from the prison where he was jailed at the time.

The DEA received no claims to the $5214 seized from Minor's residence. Accordingly, on December 9, 1991, it declared the property forfeited to the United States. Under the applicable procedures, that declaration has "the same force and effect as a final decree and order of forfeiture in a judicial forfeiture proceeding in a district court of the United States." See 19 U.S.C. S 1609.

On April 16, 1998, more than six years after the government's declaration of forfeiture, Minor filed a pro se motion for return of the currency in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, the judicial district in which he had been convicted. In this motion, Minor alleged that he had "never received notice of any forfeiture, or forfeiture proceedings."

The district court denied Minor's motion in a brief order, stating that the government had provided notice of the forfeiture and that Minor had failed to respond during the statutorily prescribed time period. This court then granted Minor leave to appeal in forma pauperis² and appointed counsel for him.

II.

We must first decide whether we have jurisdiction to hear Minor's appeal.

The government, characterizing Minor's motion for return of the currency as an action for money damages under the Tucker Act, urges us to transfer this case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Under the Tucker Act's jurisdictional provisions, a district court may adjudicate civil actions against the government for claims not exceeding $10,000, see 28 U.S.C.S 1346(a) (1994), but the Federal Circuit has "exclusive jurisdiction of an appeal from a final decision of a district court . . . if the jurisdiction of that court was based, in whole or in part, on section 1346 of this title." 28 U.S.C. S 1295(a)(2) (1994).

We disagree with the government's characterization of Minor's motion as an action for money damages under the Tucker Act. Even though Minor seeks return of currency, we can see no persuasive reason to treat his motion differently than an action in equity for the return of a tangible item of personal property. In suing for return of the currency, Minor seeks restitution of "the very thing" to which he claims an entitlement, not damages in substitution for a loss. See Bowen v. Massachusetts, 487 U.S. 879, 895 (1988). A court sitting in equity has jurisdiction to order money damages if it cannot effect return of the specific property at issue, and an award of monetary relief under those circumstances "does not alone alter the equitable character of the relief requested." Marshall Leasing, Inc. v. United States, 893 F.2d 1096, 1099 (9th Cir. 1990); see also Bowen, 487 U.S. at 893 ("The fact that a judicial remedy may require one party to pay money to another is not a sufficient reason to characterize the relief as `money damages.'"). Here, the fact that the government obviously cannot restore to Minor the specific currency that was seized does not transform the motion into an action at law. Cf . United States v. Jones, 225 F.3d 468 (4th Cir. Sept. 13, 2000) (holding soverign immunity deprives courts of jurisdiction to award monetary damages in lieu of destroyed property in a Rule 41(e) action). Rather, this is an equitable action over which we have jurisdiction, and we reject the government's suggestion that we transfer the case to the Federal Circuit.

We note that our sister circuits, without exception, have similarly found that they have jurisdiction to consider such challenges. See United States v. Woodall, 12 F.3d 791, 793 (8th Cir. 1993) (observing that "the federal courts have universally upheld jurisdiction to review whether an administrative forfeiture satisfied statutory and due pro- cess requirements"). To date, at least nine courts of appeals have considered due process challenges to administrative forfeitures, and none has found that it lacked jurisdiction because of the procedural provisions of the Tucker Act, or for any other reason. See United States v. Dusenbery, 201 F.3d 763, 766 n.7 (6th Cir. 2000); Polanco v. DEA, 158 F.3d 647, 651 (2d Cir. 1998); Small v. United States, 136 F.3d 1334 (D.C. Cir. 1998); United States v. Clark , 84 F.3d 378, 381 (10th Cir. 1996); Armendariz-Mata v. United States Dep't of Justice, 82 F.3d 679, 682 (5th Cir. 1996); United States v. Giraldo, 45 F.3d 509, 511 (1st Cir. 1995); Woodall, 12 F.3d at 793; Marshall Leasing, 893 F.2d at 1098-1102; Willis v. United States, 787 F.2d 1089, 1092-93 (7th Cir. 1986). Although the Second and Eighth Circuits may view the Tucker Act as an alternative basis for jurisdiction, see Woodall, 12 F.3d at 793; Onwubiko v. United States, 969 F.2d 1392, 1398 (2d Cir. 1992); but see Polanco, 158 F.3d at 651 (questioning the continuing authority of Onwubiko), every other circuit that has addressed the jurisdictional issue has viewed challenges like Minor's as we do--as equitable actions.

While we are confident that Minor's motion is not an action at law under the Tucker Act, and that its roots are in equity, identifying the precise character of Minor's motion presents greater difficulty.³ Courts have...