Van Oster v. State of Kansas

• Decision Date: 22 November 1926
• Docket Number: No. 303,303
• Parties: VAN OSTER v. STATE OF KANSAS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

272 U.S. 465

47 S.Ct. 133

71 L.Ed. 354

VAN OSTER

v STATE OF KANSAS.

No. 303.

Argued Oct. 21, 1926.

Decided Nov. 22, 1926.

Messrs. Duane R. Dills, of New York City, and Wm. H. Thompson, of Tulsa, Okl., for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Roland Boynton and C. B. Griffith, both of Topeka, Kan., for State of Kansas.

Mr. Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

Plaintiff in error purchased an automobile of local dealers in Finney county, Kan., agreeing, as part considera- tion for the sale, to its retention by the vendors for use in their business. Clyde Brown, an associate of the dealers, was permitted by them, with the knowledge of plaintiff in error, to make frequent use of the automobile. Brown was arrested by state officers, and an information was filed charging that he used an automobile (which was plaintiff's) for the illegal transportation of intoxicating liquor and seeking its forfeiture and sale as a common nuisance under the Kansas statute. Laws Kan. 1919, c. 217, §§ 1-6; sections 21-2162 to 21-2167, R. S. Plaintiff intervened, denying the allegations of the information and setting up her ownership of the automobile and that the transportation of intoxicating liquor, if any, was without her knowledge or authority.

A trial by the district court of Finney county without a jury, as provided by the Kansas statute, resulted in a judgment of forfeiture. This determination was affirmed on appeal to the Supreme Court of Kansas. State v. (Brown) Van Oster, 119 Kan. 874, 241 P. 112. After this decision, but prior to a petition for rehearing subsequently denied, Brown was acquitted by a jury of the offense charged in the information. The case comes here on writ of error. Judicial Code, 237(a), as amended (Comp. St. § 1214).

The Kansas statute, cited above, declares that an automobile or other vehicle used in the state in the transportation of intoxicating liquor is a common nuisance, and establishes a procedure followed in this case for its forfeiture and sale. The Kansas Supreme Court in this, as in other cases, State v. Peterson, 107 Kan. 641, 193 P. 342; State v. Stephens, 109 Kan. 254, 198 P. 1087, has construed this act as authorizing the forfeiture of the interest of an innocent owner or lienor in property intrusted to the wrongdoer.

It is contended that the statute as interpreted denies the due process of law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The statute is further assailed on the ground that it is repugnant to the provisions of the National Prohi- bition Act (Comp. St. § 10138 1/4 et seq.), which covers the same field; and, finally, objection is made that evidence of the intoxicating character of the liquor transported was lacking, and that the acquittal of Brown establishes beyond contradiction that no crime was committed.

It is not questioned that a state in the exercise of its police may forfeit property used by its owner in violation of state laws prohibiting the liquor traffic. Kidd v. Pearson, 128 U. S. 1, 9 S. Ct. 6, 32 L. Ed. 346, cf. Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, 671, 8 S. Ct. 273, 31 L. Ed. 205, et seq., Lawton v. Steele, 152 U. S. 133, 14 S. Ct. 499, 38 L. Ed. 385. It is unnecessary for us to inquire whether the police power of the state extends to the confiscation of the property of innocent persons appropriated and used by the law breaker without the owner's consent, for here the offense of unlawful transportation was committed by one intrusted by the owner with the possession and use of the offending vehicle.

It is not unknown, or indeed uncommon, for the law to visit upon the owner of property the unpleasant consequences of the unauthorized action of one to whom he has intrusted it. Much of the jurisdiction in admiralty, so much of the statute and common law of liens as enables a mere bailee to subject the bailed property to a lien, the power of a vendor of chattels in possession to sell and convey good title to a stranger, are familiar examples. They have their counterpart in legislation imposing liability on owners of vehicles for the negligent operation by those intrusted with their use, regardless of a master-servant relation. Laws of New York, 1924, c. 534; Pub. Acts Mich. 1915, Act No. 302, § 29 (constitutionality upheld, Stapleton v. Independent Brewing Co., 198 Mich. 170, 164 N. W. 520, L. R. A. 1918A, 916). They suggest that certain uses of property may be regarded so undesirable that the owner surrenders his control at his peril. The law thus builds a secondary defense against a forbidden use and precludes evasions by dispensing with the necessity of judicial inquiry as to collusion between the wrongdoer and the alleged innocent owner. So here the legislature, to effect a purpose clearly within its power, had adopted a device consonant with recognized principles and therefore within the limits of due process.

It has long been settled that statutory forfeitures of property intrusted by the innocent owner or lienor to another who uses it in violation of the revenue laws of the United States is not a violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Goldsmith-Grant Co. v. United States, 254 U. S. 505, 41 S. Ct. 189, 65 L. Ed. 376; Dobbins Distillery v. United States, 96 U. S. 395, 24 L. Ed. 637; United States v. Stowell, 133 U. S. 1, 10 S. Ct. 244, 33 L. Ed. 555; United States v. Mincey, 254 F. 287, 165 C. C. A. 575, 5 A. L. R. 211; Logan v. United States, 260 F. 746, 171 C. C. A. 484; United States v. One Saxon Automobile, 257 F. 251, 168 C. C. A. 335; United States v 246 1/2...