US v. ONE LOT AT BLOCK C NO. 30, Civ. No. 90-2008 (JP).
| Decision Date | 20 July 1992 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 90-2008 (JP). |
| Citation | 804 F. Supp. 415 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. ONE URBAN LOT AT BLOCK C # 30, SIERRA BERDECIA ST., etc., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Eduardo E. Toro Font, Asst. U.S. Atty., Hato Rey, P.R., for plaintiff.
Antonio Córdova González, San Juan, P.R., for defendant.
The Court has before it cross-motions for summary judgment filed by the parties in this case. For the reasons set forth below, the motion of the United States is hereby GRANTED while the motions of claimants are hereby DENIED.
In 1990, a joint investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that Ramón Torres González had been involved in the importation of cocaine from Columbia to Puerto Rico and the continental United States. Upon making this discovery, the United States commenced a criminal action against Torres González, United States v. Torres González a/k/a Rey, et al., Crim. No. 90-370 (CC), which proceeded before the Honorable Carmen Consuelo Vargas de Cerezo, and a civil forfeiture action against the proceeds accrued from Torres' various drug transactions, United States v. Approximately Forty Three Million Dollars in U.S. Currency, etc., Civ. No. 90-1652 (GG), which proceeded before the Honorable Gilberto Gierbolini. The criminal action resulted in convictions of all the non-fugitive defendants based on pleas of guilty. The civil action resulted in an order by Judge Gierbolini that the monies were properly forfeited to the United States.
The instant action was commenced by the United States with the filing, on July 24, 1990, of a Complaint for Forfeiture in Rem, which charged that the defendant property in this case was purchased with proceeds traceable to the illegal transactions of Torres.1 The government alleged that Torres had placed the proceeds of his drug transactions in twenty-two plastic barrels which were then buried on his property located in Barrio Espinosa, Dorado, Puerto Rico; that René Feliciano Pagán, Jesús Sánchez Rosa, and Carmelo Dávila entered onto the property owned by Torres González and stole approximately $9 million of the buried cash; and that they commenced a "shopping spree" which resulted in the purchase of the defendant property. Feliciano, Sánchez, and Dávila each asserted claims to the property, admitting that the defendant property was purchased with money buried on Torres' property but asserting that the money was not stolen and that they were without knowledge that it was obtained from illegal drug transactions.
At the Initial Scheduling Conference held in this case on October 25, 1990, the parties agreed that this case could be disposed of through the filing of cross motions for summary judgment on the issues of relation-back under the federal forfeiture statute, the applicability of the "treasure trove" provisions of the Puerto Rico Civil Code, and whether these provisions are preempted by the federal law. Accordingly, plaintiff filed a motion to dismiss and/or for summary judgment on November 13, 1990, and claimants filed a dispositive motion dated November 15, 1990, pursuant to Rules 8(b), 12(c), 56 and 57 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Thereafter, this case was stayed pending the outcome of the criminal prosecution of Torres. During the stay, claimants filed a motion to dismiss dated July 12, 1991, on the new theory that they are "innocent owners" of the defendant property.
In the meantime, claimants filed a civil action against the government seeking replevin of that portion of the currency which had been forfeited to the United States in the case before Judge Gierbolini over which they felt they had legal possession. As in this case, they asserted that they were entitled to the money they had "found" because it was hidden treasure to which they were entitled under Puerto Rico law. The case proceeded before Judge Fusté, who issued an Opinion and Order on November 20, 1990, granting the government's motion for summary judgment. Sánchez, et al. v. United States, 781 F.Supp. 835 (D. Puerto Rico 1991).
Judge Fusté found that the money claimed did not qualify as "hidden treasure" under Article 285 of the Puerto Rico Civil Code, 31 L.P.R.A. §§ 1116 and 1117, because claimants could not establish, as required by the Code, that lawful ownership of the money at the time of its "discovery" could not be proven. He found:
Id., 781 F.Supp. at 840. Judge Fusté went on to find that claimants' "innocent owner" allegation could not save their claim and that their allegation that Torres had "abandoned" the money at issue was baseless. Id. at 841-42.
On May 5, 1992, the Court lifted the stay of the proceedings in this case. It also ordered the parties to file memoranda of law setting forth the issues which remained for the Court consideration given Judge Fusté's opinion in Sánchez v. United States. The parties were informed:
The Court intends to use these memoranda alone to resolve all pending matters before it; therefore, all active issues and arguments should be included in these motions.... The parties are ORDERED to submit their memoranda on or before May 26, 1992. If either memoranda is not submitted by that date, all of the delinquent parties'...
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