Universal Credit Co. v. United States
| Decision Date | 06 May 1940 |
| Docket Number | No. 4600.,4600. |
| Citation | 111 F.2d 764 |
| Parties | UNIVERSAL CREDIT CO. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
George C. Hampton, Jr., of Greensboro, N. C. (C. L. Shuping and Shuping & Hampton, all of Greensboro, N. C., on the brief), for appellant.
Fred E. Strine, Atty., Department of Justice, of Washington, D. C. (Carlisle W. Higgins, U. S. Atty., of Greensboro, N. C., and George F. Kneip, Atty., Department of Justice, of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellee.
Before PARKER, SOPER, and NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judges.
The District Court entered a judgment of forfeiture to the United States, free of the claims of all persons whatsoever, of an automobile which had been seized while being used on a public highway in North Carolina in the removal and concealment of distilled spirits with intent to defraud the United States of the taxes due thereon. A claim to the car set up by the appellant, the Universal Credit Company, based upon a conditional sales contract, was thereby overruled. The contract had been executed by the purchaser of the car in order to secure payment of the balance of the purchase price in the sum of $698, and had been assigned by the seller to the claimant. At the time of the seizure the sum of $503 was due and owing by the purchaser.
The claim was filed by the Credit Company under the terms of § 204 of the Liquor Law Repeal and Enforcement Act of August 27, 1935, Ch. 740, 49 Stat. 872, 878, 27 U.S.C.A. § 40a. This Act confers jurisdiction upon federal district courts, upon certain conditions, to remit or mitigate the forfeiture of any vehicle seized for violation of internal revenue laws relating to liquor. When the interest of the claimant of the vehicle arises out of a contract with another person, who also has an interest in the vehicle and a record or reputation for violating laws of the United States or of any State relating to liquor, the court's power to act depends upon certain conditions which include the requirement that the claimant, before acquiring his interest, shall have been informed upon inquiry at the headquarters of certain law enforcement officers that such other person has no such record or reputation.1
The District Judge found that the purchaser of the car had such a record and such a reputation, and that the claimant had not fully complied with the stated condition, and therefore concluded that the court was without power to remit or mitigate the forfeiture, although the claimant had made inquiry of divers persons with regard to the purchaser and had received no information indicating that he was engaged in violation of the liquor laws. The failure of the claimant resided solely in the fact that it was not informed in answer to its inquiry, that the purchaser had no reputation for violating the laws of the United States or of any State relating to liquor. Inquiry was made of the sheriff of Forsyth County and of the chief of police of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where the purchaser lived, and also of the investigator in charge of the Alcohol Tax Unit at Charlotte, North Carolina. The investigator in charge made no response to the inquiry. The sheriff and the chief of police answered that the purchaser had no record, but they said nothing about his reputation. The replies received would have been sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon the court had they also stated that the purchaser had no such reputation; but in the absence of the receipt by the claimant of favorable information on this point, the court was without power to grant the claimant's petition. As we pointed...
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