80
OCTOBER TERM, 1992
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eleventh circuit
No. 91-767. Argued October 5, 1992—Decided December 14, 1992
The Government filed a civil action in the District Court, alleging that a particular residence was subject to forfeiture under 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(6) because its owner had purchased it with narcotics trafficking proceeds. After the United States Marshal seized the property, petitioner Bank, which claimed a lien under a recorded mortgage, agreed to the Government's request for a sale of the property, the proceeds of which were retained by the marshal pending disposition of the case. A trial on the merits resulted in a judgment denying the Bank's claim with prejudice and forfeiting the sale proceeds to the United States. When the Bank filed a timely notice of appeal but failed to post a supersedeas bond or seek to stay the execution of the judgment, the marshal, at the Government's request, transferred the sale proceeds to the United States Treasury. The Court of Appeals then granted the Government's motion to dismiss, holding, inter alia, that the removal of the sale proceeds from the judicial district terminated the District Court's in rem jurisdiction.
Held: The judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded.
932 F. 2d 1433, reversed and remanded.
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, and IV, concluding that, in an in rem forfeiture action, the Court of Appeals is not divested of jurisdiction by the prevailing party's transfer of the res from the district. The "settled" rule on which the Government relies—that jurisdiction over such a proceeding depends upon continued control of the res—does not exist. Rather, the applicable general principle is that jurisdiction, once vested, is not divested by a discontinuance of possession, although exceptions may exist where, for example, release of the res would render the judgment "useless" because the res could neither be delivered to the complainant nor restored to the claimant. See, e. g., United States v. The Little Charles, 26 F. Cas. 979. The Brig Ann, 9 Cranch 289, 290, distinguished. The fictions of in rem forfeiture were developed primarily to expand the reach of the courts and to furnish remedies for aggrieved parties, not to provide a prevailing party with a means of defeating its adversary's claim for redress. Pp. 84-89, 92-93.
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