State ex rel. Watkins v. Sellers

894 So. 2d 733, 2004 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 508, 2004 WL 1462513
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJune 30, 2004
Docket2020260
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 894 So. 2d 733 (State ex rel. Watkins v. Sellers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Watkins v. Sellers, 894 So. 2d 733, 2004 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 508, 2004 WL 1462513 (Ala. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinions

MURDOCK, Judge.

The State ex rel. Nathan G. Watkins, Sr., District Attorney (“the State”), appeals from a judgment of the Sumter Circuit Court declining to condemn and forfeit a 2001 Cadillac Deville automobile (“the automobile”). We reverse and remand.

On March 24, 2001, police officers with the York Police Department arrested Richard Sellers, Jr. The officers had received a tip that Sellers was receiving marijuana through the mail from Texas and that he was having the drugs delivered to his grandmother’s address, where he would pick up the drugs for later distribution. By alerting the postal service to the potential drug deliveries, the officers intercepted a box to be delivered to Sellers. A police canine searched the box; the canine indicated to police officers that the box contained a controlled substance, so the officers allowed the package to be delivered to Sellers’s grandmother’s residence while the location was put under surveillance. Sellers came to his grandmother’s residence in the automobile to pick up the package; upon retrieving the package, he placed it in the back seat of the automobile.

The officers stopped Sellers as he began to drive away from his grandmother’s residence, and they seized the box from the automobile. Upon opening the box, the officers discovered that it contained 13.9 pounds of marijuana, the authenticity of which was later verified by forensic tests. The officers also discovered $5,561 in United States currency in the automobile; the [735]*735bills were in small denominations such as $20 bills.

The officers discovered several papers in the glove compartment of the automobile, including a certificate of title for the automobile registered in Sellers’s name; a receipt for a certificate of deposit in the amount of $55,000, which was listed as being payable to both Sellers and another individual, Alisha Gibbs; and a promissory note, security agreement, and truth-in-lending disclosure form dated February 19, 2001, which listed the certifícate of deposit as the security interest for a loan used to purchase the automobile.

On March 29, 2001, the State filed a petition to condemn and forfeit the $5,561 and the automobile, contending that Sellers had used or intended to use the currency and the automobile to facilitate the transportation or distribution of a controlled substance, a violation of § 20-2-93, Ala.Code 1975. On April 19, 2001, Gibbs filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings, contending that she was the equitable owner and/or a bona fide lienholder of both the automobile and the currency. On March 21, 2002, a hearing was held concerning the State’s petition, with the trial court receiving evidence ore tenus.1

Testimony at the hearing established that, although Sellers was unemployed and had not worked for some time when the currency and the automobile were seized, he had been making monthly payments on the automobile in the amount of $722.90. Testimony also indicated that Sellers associated with persons who had been arrested in the past for drug trafficking. Testimony further indicated that Sellers drove the automobile frequently and that ownership of the automobile had remained exclusively in his name until August 29, 2001, some five months after the seizure of the automobile, at which time Gibbs obtained a certificate of title to the automobile in her name.

Gibbs testified at the hearing that she and Sellers had lived together for about a year before his arrest on the drug charges. She stated that in February 2001 she had received a settlement from the death of her daughter totaling $378,000 and that she had placed the money in a joint checking account under her and Sellers’s names. Gibbs testified that soon thereafter Sellers, without her knowledge, withdrew $55,000 from that account, which, she said, he used to purchase a certificate of deposit; Gibbs stated that Sellers then used the certificate of deposit — again without Gibbs’s knowledge — as collateral for a loan to purchase the automobile. Gibbs stated that she had no knowledge that Sellers was dealing drugs, or that he may have been using the automobile to facilitate the distribution of drugs, or that he was receiving packages at his grandmother’s residence. In addition, the two police officers who testified at the hearing acknowledged that they had no direct evidence that Gibbs knew of Sellers’s involvement with drugs. Gibbs also testified that because Sellers had failed to keep up his payments on the automobile loan, the bank had foreclosed on the loan by offsetting the amount owed on the loan against the certificate of deposit which had been pledged as collateral for the loan.

After hearing the evidence, the trial court issued a judgment in which it determined that the $5,561 was due to be forfeited2 but that the automobile was not [736]*736subject to forfeiture because Gibbs had demonstrated that she was a bona fide lienholder of the automobile at the time of its seizure. The trial court’s determination regarding the $5,561 has not been appealed; however, the State appeals the trial court’s judgment refusing to forfeit the automobile.

“On review of a forfeiture judgment after an ore tenus proceeding, the trial court’s judgment is presumed correct unless the record shows it to be contrary to the great weight of the evidence.” Gatlin v. State, 846 So.2d 1090, 1093 (Ala.Civ.App.2002). The State contends that the trial court erred in determining that the automobile was not due to be forfeited under § 20-2-93.

“In a § 20-2-93, [Ala.] Code 1975, forfeiture proceeding, the State may establish a prima facie case by showing that the item to be forfeited was used, or intended to be used, in violation of the Alabama Uniform Controlled Substances Act. Culpepper v. State, 587 So.2d 359 (Ala.Civ.App.1991). The standard of that proof is reasonable satisfaction. Agee v. State ex rel. Galanos, 627 So.2d 960 (Ala.Civ.App.1993). Once a prima facie case is established by the State, an owner or lienholder of the seized property may prevail if he or she proves that the act was committed without his or her knowledge and that he or she could not have obtained that knowledge by the exercise of reasonable diligence so as to have prevented the illegal use. Culpepper, § 20-2-93(h), [Ala.] Code 1975.”

Robbs v. State ex rel. Whetstone, 674 So.2d 1301, 1302-03 (Ala.Civ.App.1995).

Both parties agree that the State established its prima facie case concerning the automobile, and Gibbs concedes that she was not the owner of the automobile at the time of its seizure; thus, the automobile may be saved from forfeiture only if Gibbs was a bona fide lienholder who had no knowledge of Sellers’s drug trafficking and who could not have obtained knowledge of his illegal activities through reasonable diligence.

On appeal, the State’s brief focuses primarily on the issue whether Gibbs knew or with reasonable diligence should have known of the intended illegal use of the automobile.3 The State concedes that no direct evidence demonstrated that Gibbs knew of Sellers’s drug trafficking. (State’s brief, p. 12.) The State contends, however, that Gibbs could have obtained knowledge of Sellers’s illegal activities through reasonable diligence.

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Related

Lee v. State ex rel. Broussard
108 So. 3d 1037 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2012)
State v. Pressley
100 So. 3d 1058 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2012)
Hildreth v. State
51 So. 3d 344 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
894 So. 2d 733, 2004 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 508, 2004 WL 1462513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-watkins-v-sellers-alacivapp-2004.