First Circuit: US v. De Jesus-Gomez

 

In a civil forfeiture proceeding in Admiralty, discovery sanctions are slightly more severe than in the civil analogue.  The Court must weigh severity, repetition, and deliberateness of the violation must be considered.  No prejudice need be shown.  The court did not abuse its discretion in striking the late response and issuing default judgment against a vessel whose claimants asserted a Fifth Amendment exception to civil interrogatories, having previously asserted the exception in a motion to stay that was denied without prejudice.  Although one of the claimants was being held in solitary confinement during the discovery period, the other claimant was not so encumbered.

US v. De Jesus-Gomez

Second Circuit: In Re: 650 Fifth Avenue Company & Related Properties

 

In determining probable cause for forfeiture, refusing to grant an adverse inference after discovery non-production is within the broad discretion afforded the court.

Deprivation of the commercial building's owners of the rights of management, including improvement, selection of and negotiation with tenants, and taking of rental revenues constituted a seizure.

Seizure of rental income is a form of taking the underlying property, not a taking of an interest in property, so the statute required appropriate procedures -- either a hearing or a finding of exigency.

Subsequent finding of probable cause doesn't retroactively justify the earlier taking of rents -- government must repay all rents seized prior to the court's finding.

In Re: 650 Fifth Avenue Company & Related Properties