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319 F.3d 640: United States of America v. Luther Thomas, Appellant
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. - 319 F.3d 640
Argued November 13, 2002 Filed February 12, 2003
Douglas J. Beevers (Argued), Assistant Federal Public Defender, St. Thomas, USVI, for Appellant.
Joycelyn Hewlett (Argued), Assistant U.S. Attorney, St. Thomas, USVI, for Appellee.
Before SCIRICA, ALITO, and RENDELL, Circuit Judges.
ALITO, Circuit Judge.
1 Appellant Luther Thomas contests the administrative forfeiture of $1,049 in cash. After unsuccessfully moving for a return of property pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(e), Thomas argued that the government's failure initially to assert jurisdiction over the res rendered the forfeiture invalid. The District Court found no jurisdictional deficiencies, and we affirm.
2 On May 25, 2000, the Drug Enforcement Administration obtained from the District Court a warrant to search Thomas's home. Officers seized $1,049 in cash pursuant to that warrant and arrested Thomas for possessing a small amount of cocaine base (crack) with intent to distribute. On June 1, a DEA task-force agent and Virgin Islands police...
...checks, and bank deposits are simply surrogates for each other, and in modern society are certainly regarded as `fungible,' when the question is ownership of the funds each represents." Similarly, the Ninth Circuit rejected the argument that when "currency was exchanged for a cashier's check, the currency, which is the res, `disappeared into the banking system and is no longer identifiable.'" United States v. $46,588 in U.S. Currency and $20.00 in Canadian Currency, 103 F.3d 902, 905 (9th Cir.1996). Citing Madewell, it held that "the cashier's check was an appropriate, fungible surrogate for the seized currency." Id.
18 This approach accords comfortably with the jurisprudence of civil forfeiture. Historically, forfeiture proceeded from the legal fiction that property used in the commission of a crime itself offends the law. See, e.g., The Palmyra, 25 U.S. (12 Wheat.) 1, 14, 6 L.Ed. 531 (1827). The forfeited res, as a legal entity, is identical with the physical article when the property is, for example, a sea vessel, an automobile, or a firearm. Currency, however, differs substantially from such objects. Paper currency, in the form of the Federal Reserve Note, is defined as an "obligation[] of the United States" that may be "redeemed in lawful money on demand." 12 U.S.C. ยง 411 (2002). These bills are not "money" per se but promissory notes supported by the monetary reserves of the United States. When an individual engages in a criminal transaction with paper currency, although the individual certainly uses the notes to accomplish the criminal end, the currency's monetary value funds the transaction and is also an appropriate target of forfeiture. This result also follows from the fact that an individual who uses legal documents representing ownership of land to raise funds for a criminal purpose renders the land itself subject to forfeiture. See United States v. RD 1, Box 1, Thompsontown, 952 F.2d 53 (3d Cir.1991). It would be absurd, in that case, to suppose that forfeiture could attach only to the document and not to the legal interests represented by that document. We therefore hold that the DEA did not abandon the res when it converted the currency to a cashier's check.
19 In sum, we hold that the DEA properly exercised in rem jurisdiction over the $1,049 seized from Thomas. As the District Court correctly recognized in citing McGlory, no other issue that would normally go to the merits of a Rule 41(e) motion may be considered or adjudicated at this time. We therefore affirm the judgment of the District Court.
I will try getting a better rendition of the case into .pdf later today.
