United States v. Parcel of Rumson, N. J., Land, 507 U.S. 111, 30 (1993)

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140

UNITED STATES v. PARCEL OF RUMSON, N. J., LAND

Kennedy, J., dissenting

that need not be addressed. The right question, I submit, is not whether the donee's ownership meets the statutory test of innocence. 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(6). Instead, the threshold and dispositive inquiry is whether the donee had any ownership rights that required a separate forfeiture, given that her title was defective and subject to the Government's claim from the outset. We must ask whether a wrongdoer holding a forfeitable asset, property in which the United States has an undoubted superior claim, can defeat that claim by a transfer for no value. Under settled principles of property transfers, trusts, and commercial transactions, the answer is no. We need not address the donee's position except to acknowledge that she has whatever right the donor had, a right which falls before the Government's superior claim. In this case, forfeiture is determined by the title and ownership of the asset in the hands of the donor, not the donee. The position of respondent as the present holder of the asset and her knowledge, or lack of knowledge, regarding any drug offenses are, under these facts, but abstract inquiries, unnecessary to the resolution of the case.

I

We can begin with the state of affairs when the alleged drug dealer held the funds he was later to transfer to respondent. Those moneys were proceeds of unlawful drug transactions and in the dealer's hands were, without question, subject to forfeiture under § 881(a)(6). The dealer did not just know of the illegal acts; he performed them. As the case is presented to us, any defense of his based on lack of knowledge is not a possibility. As long as the dealer held the illegal asset, it was subject to forfeiture and to the claim of the United States, which had a superior interest in the property.

Suppose the drug dealer with unlawful proceeds had encountered a swindler who, knowing nothing of the dealer's

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