Nunley v. Department Of Justice

425 F.3d 1132, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 22165
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedOctober 14, 2005
Docket04-1922
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 425 F.3d 1132 (Nunley v. Department Of Justice) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nunley v. Department Of Justice, 425 F.3d 1132, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 22165 (8th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

425 F.3d 1132

James Allen NUNLEY, Appellant,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, United States of America; Drug Enforcement; Agency; Officer Halfacre, Individually and in his official capacities; Federal Narcotics Agents, Individually and in their official capacities, Appellees.

No. 04-1922.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: June 21, 2005.

Filed: October 14, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED Mr. Kris Alan Higdon, argued, Conway, Arkansas, for appellant.

Mark W. Webb, argued, Fort Smith, Arkansas, for appellee.

Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

This case concerns the requirements of the due process clause with respect to forfeiture notices sent to a prisoner. James Nunley filed a pro se complaint against the Department of Justice, the "Drug Enforcement Agency," Officer Halfacre (a member of a DEA task force), and unknown federal narcotics agents, charging that the federal government violated his due process rights when it administratively forfeited some of his property (i.e., declared the property forfeited without a court order, see 19 U.S.C. §§ 1607-1609; 21 U.S.C. § 881) while he was incarcerated. The complaint alleges that the government did not convey forfeiture notices to Mr. Nunley using a method that was reasonably calculated to reach him and, perhaps (the complaint is not clear), that the few forfeiture notices that he did receive were defective because they did not inform him that an indigent person need not post a bond to contest a forfeiture. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the government and dismissed the complaint with prejudice. We conclude that the district court erred, in part, and remand.

I.

A.

Working from a tip provided by an informant, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Mr. Nunley's home. They seized, in addition to weapons and illegal drugs, a Corvette and three separate lots of cash: one of $131,574, one of $1,025, and one of $1,815. Later on, the government seized from other individuals a speed boat and two more lots of cash, one of $10,000 and one of $5,000. Mr. Nunley arguably had an interest in the items seized from his house as well as the items seized from the other individuals.

The government issued forfeiture notices for the car, the separate lots of cash, and the boat. It sent them via certified mail to Mr. Nunley at both the jail where he was being held and his erstwhile residence. The notices sent to the jail were signed for by one or another employee of the sheriff's office for the county in which the jail is situated. Though the government received signed return-receipts for all of the notices sent to the jail, the jail's mail log reflects the receipt of only the two notices that Mr. Nunley admits to receiving: one for the $10,000 in cash and another for the boat. As to the notices sent to Mr. Nunley's previous residence, he had shared that home with Debbie Nunley, née Chaffin, prior to his arrest; she was his girlfriend-cum-roommate at the time of his arrest and became his wife around the time that the forfeitures were taking place (the exact time is not relevant). Ms. Nunley still lived at the residence at the time that the notices were sent there to Mr. Nunley. The government also sent notices to Ms. Nunley at the same address and, with respect to the $5,000, to Mr. Nunley in care of the defense attorney who represented him in the criminal case that arose out of the seizure of the drugs. No objections to the forfeitures were filed, so the government declared the property forfeited. See 19 U.S.C. § 1609; 21 U.S.C. § 881.

Mr. Nunley filed this action complaining of the sufficiency of the forfeiture notices. The district court, adopting a magistrate judge's report and recommendation, granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants. It concluded that the notices sent to Ms. Nunley and to Mr. Nunley at the residence that they had shared satisfied the government's due process obligations because Ms. Nunley visited Mr. Nunley at the jail and frequently sent him mail. The court did not base its summary judgment decision on the notices sent directly to the jail because it concluded that there were questions of fact about the operation of the jail's mail-distribution practices with respect to these notices.

B.

Mr. Nunley argues that the district court erred in granting the defendants's summary judgment motion. Summary judgment is appropriate if the "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). We review a district court's decision to grant summary judgment de novo and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Tatum v. Arkansas Dept. of Health, 411 F.3d 955, 959 (8th Cir.2005).

The due process clause of the fifth amendment provides that no person shall "be deprived of ... property, without due process of law." U.S. Const. amend. V. An individual facing forfeiture risks being deprived of his or her property and thus is entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard. See Dusenbery v. United States, 534 U.S. 161, 167, 122 S.Ct. 694, 151 L.Ed.2d 597 (2002). The due process clause does not require that the interested party receive actual notice of the pending action, however. Id. at 169-70, 122 S.Ct. 694. Instead, due process is satisfied if the method of notice is "reasonably calculated, under all of the circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to present their objections." Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 314, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950). Notice by mail is ordinarily presumed to be constitutionally sufficient. See, e.g., id. at 319, 70 S.Ct. 652; Tulsa Prof'l Collection Servs., Inc. v. Pope, 485 U.S. 478, 490, 108 S.Ct. 1340, 99 L.Ed.2d 565 (1988). But there is no rule that mailed notice need always be considered adequate. See United States v. One Toshiba Color Television, 213 F.3d 147, 153 (3d Cir.2000) (en banc); cf. Covey v. Town of Somers, 351 U.S. 141, 146-47, 76 S.Ct. 724, 100 L.Ed. 1021 (1956).

In Dusenbery, the Supreme Court addressed some of the requirements of due process with respect to forfeiture notices sent to prisoners.

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Bluebook (online)
425 F.3d 1132, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 22165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nunley-v-department-of-justice-ca8-2005.