Kripp v. Luton

466 F.3d 1171, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 26778, 2006 WL 3030569
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided October 26, 2006·No. No. 05-7062·Published·Cited by 38 cases

Opinion

CASSELL, District Judge.

This case requires us to determine when the statute of limitations begins to run for federal civil rights actions challenging a law enforcement seizure and subsequent forfeiture of property. The district court below dismissed appellant Paul Kripp’s complaint challenging the seizure and forfeiture of property he alleges is his. The district court found that he filed all of his causes of action outside the time prescribed by the applicable statutes of limitations because they all accrued when law enforcement seized his property, not later when the forfeiture proceedings occurred. We agree with the district court that Mr. Kripp’s causes of action regarding the initial seizure of his property accrued at the time of the seizure and thus are time-barred. But we disagree that his claims challenging the forfeiture process itself accrued so early. Rather, we hold that these causes of action accrued at the time the forfeiture proceedings were held. Because Mr. Kripp timely filed these claims, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

[1173] FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Because the district court dismissed Mr. Kripp’s complaint as time-barred, we accept the allegations in his complaint as true.1 Proceeding on that basis, Mr. Kripp alleges that in the late 1990s, he loaned his son-in-law, Sean Hornback, about $30,000 worth of automotive repair tools, machinery, trailers, and other auto supplies for use in Mr. Hornback’s shop. On February 8, 2000, Fort Gibson police officers searched that shop, believing Mr. Hornback was running a “chop shop” to dispose of stolen auto parts. During the search, the police officers seized cars, equipment, and all of the tools located in the shop. The next day, on February 9, 2000, Mr. Kripp’s wife reported to the Muskogee County District Attorney’s Office that the auto repair tools and machinery seized in the raid belonged to Mr. Kripp, thereby making a claim for the return of the property.

On July 17, 2000, the Muskogee County District Attorney’s Office filed a notice of forfeiture and seizure of property pursuant to certain Oklahoma “chop shop” forfeiture statutes.2 Although Mr. Kripp had made a claim for the return of the property (through his wife), he was never served with the notice of forfeiture. On September 8, 2000, Mr. Kripp learned of the pending forfeiture action and filed a timely claim for return of his property.

In March 2003, the Muskogee County District Attorney’s Office dropped its pending criminal charges against Mr. Hornback. It did not, however, return the property it had seized. Mr. Kripp allegedly made numerous demands on the District Attorney’s Office to return his property. He also allegedly never received any written notice of any forfeiture action for any of his property. During this time, Mr. Slader apparently stored the property at the request of Muskogee County.

On March 4, 2004, the Muskogee County District Court held a forfeiture hearing regarding the seized property. Although most of his property was forfeited at this hearing, Mr. Kripp never received any notice the hearing was being held. In April 2004, the District Attorney’s Office verbally notified Mr. Kripp that the Muskogee County District Court would hold another forfeiture hearing. In May 2004, Mr. Kripp went to that hearing and discovered that most of his property had been previously either sold or destroyed, resulting in only a few items remaining in the District Attorney’s and Mr. Slader’s custody.

On October 12, 2004, Mr. Kripp filed a federal civil rights action against (among others) John David Luton (the Muskogee County District Attorney), certain named police officers, Richard Slader and the town of Fort Gibson. His complaint first alleged claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 19853 against the defendants for violating his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by conducting an illegal search and seizure. Second, he alleged §§ 1983 and 1985 claims against the defendants for “deprivation of property.” Specifically, he complained that certain defendants had failed to establish appropriate policies, practices, and procedures regarding the forfeiture proceedings. This was essentially a Fifth Amendment due process claim, alleging procedural and substantive due process violations from the search, seizure and subsequent forfeiture proceeding. Third, Mr. Kripp alleged RICO claims under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(c) and 19644 against the defendants for both the [1174] seizure of his property and his subsequent treatment in the forfeiture process. On February 1, 2005, Mr. Kripp filed an amended complaint changing some of the defendants but otherwise not altering the substance of his complaint.

After briefing by the parties and a hearing, the district court entered two orders effectively dismissing the case.5 The first order dismissed the claims against the Town of Fort Gibson and Mr. Slader. The second order mirrored the first order, dismissing the claims against Mr. Luton (the District Attorney) and Messrs. Sturm, Huitt, Morris, Taylor and Bradley (all investigators in the County Drug Task Force Unit). The district court found that Mr. Kripp’s §§ 1983 and 1985 claims were subject to Oklahoma’s two-year statute of limitations. The court also found that Mr. Kripp’s cause of action accrued on either February 8, 2000 (the date of the search), or February 9, 2000 (the date on which his wife sought return of his property from the police). Because Mr. Kripp filed his suit more than two years later on October 13, 2004, the district court held that his complaint was time-barred. In these two orders, the district court also dismissed Mr. Kripp’s RICO claims under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(c) and 1964 due to the passage of the statute of limitations. Specifically, the court found that the “4-year statute of limitations ... [is] the most appropriate limitations period for RICO actions.”6 Because Mr. Kripp “had at least constructive knowledge of the source of the injury at the very latest on February 9, 2000, and demonstrated actual knowledge on September 8, 2000,”7 the district court found that Mr. Kripp’s RICO claims contained in the October 13, 2004 complaint were also time-barred.

Mr. Kripp took a timely appeal to this court.

DISCUSSION

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Kripp v. Luton, 466 F.3d 1171, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 26778, 2006 WL 3030569 (10th Cir. 2006).

466 F.3d 1171 (Kripp v. Luton) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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