Forfeiture

“ FRONTIN: Our marriage is the wisest type.
BELISE: But all my embarrassment is, that by marrying, I must—here's the trouble—, I must pay this forfeiture. What to do? This forfeiture note that I gave to Valere. That crazy sister of mine invented the forfeiture. We made two promissory notes to this cursed nephew. All falls on me, since I am marrying, so I will have to pay up all by myself, and I'm going to have to put up with all kinds of jesting from her. Blush to death.
FRONTIN: While our love remains secret, compose yourself and retrieve your promissory notes from Valere. ”

“ They are forfeitures for acts of omission or neglect. To proceedings to enforce them, the limitation was applied. It was made applicable to no other. The proviso speaks of proceedings to enforce said forfeiture, and plainly contemplates no seizure or forfeiture for any different offence than those previously mentioned in the section. This information is founded upon no such neglect or refusal. The forfeiture claimed is for affirmative acts of the claimants; for active offences first made grounds of forfeiture by the act of 1868. ”

“ Hence, the only forfeiture which, in the nature of things, can, by any possibility, extend beyond the life of the person attainted, is the forfeiture of rights implied in the corruption of blood. But in this country, a man's tights are born with him, and they die with him. His children have the right to inherit what he leaves intestate. But if he leaves nothing which is legally his own, they have no right to what he had previously owned and lost, whether by gift, the misfortunes of business, the waste of prodigality, or the fines and forfeitures consequent upon his crimes. ”

“ Petition for King's Forfeiture rises often there: Petition from Paris Section, from Provincial Patriot Towns; 'from Alençon, Briançon, and the Traders at the Fair of Beaucaire.' Or what of these? On the 3d of August, Mayor Pétion and the Municipality come petitioning for Forfeiture: they openly, in their tricolor Municipal scarfs. Forfeiture is what all Patriots now want and expect. All Brissotins want Forfeiture; with the little Prince Royal for King, and us for Protector over him. Emphatic Fédérés ask the Legislature: 'Can you save us, or not?' Forty-seven Sections have agreed to Forfeiture ”

“ But under the 66th section no such allegations would be necessary or proper, as the forfeiture immediately attaches to every entry of goods falsely and fraudulently invoiced, without any reference whatever to the mode, or the circumstances under or by which, it is ascertained. ”

“ When a forfeiture has been incurred by reason of a fraud, not even the secretary of the treasury and collector of the customs are authorized to remit or mitigate it, much less the appraisers and other subordinate officers of the collection of the revenue. ”

“ Though claimant's counsel sets up the innocence of the present claimant in regard to the fraud or any knowledge of it, it can hardly be necessary at this day to reconsider the doctrine that when the act has been done which the law declares to work a forfeiture of the property, the right of the government to seize the property, and assert the forfeiture, attaches at once and may be pursued by the government whenever and in whose hands soever that property may be found. ”

“ On the contrary, he is entitled to insist upon obedience to law by those who assume to take his property by reason of an alleged forfeiture. To insist upon a forfeiture the person who claims it must show some legal right to insist upon it. ”

“ We are also clearly of opinion that proceedings instituted for the purpose of declaring the forfeiture of a man's property by reason of offenses committed by him, though they may be civil in form, are in their nature criminal. In this very case the ground of forfeiture, as declared in the twelfth section of the act of 1874, on which the information is based, consists of certain acts of frand committed against the public revenue in relation to imported merchandise, which are made criminal by the statute ”

“ But the point to which the attention of the court is particularly called, is the care with which the right to confiscate property, by proceedings in rem, in confined to cases 'on the revenue side of the Exchequer,' in which 'the thing is considered as primarily the offender.' In the present case it is not pretended that the houses and lots seized, have committed the offence for which their forfeiture is demanded, or have been in any manner instrumental in, or connected with, the said offence. ”

“ The Justices, at the Time of granting the Licence, shall take a Recognizance from the Party, not to suffer any unlawful Games, nor other Disorders, in his House; which is to be certified to the Sessions, and the Justices there have a Power to proceed for the Forfeiture [12] .
By the Statute of Jac. I. [13] Alehouse-keepers, who suffer Townsmen to sit tipling (unless in the Cases abovementioned [14] ) forfeit Ten Shillings to the Poor; the Distress to be sold within six Days; and if no Distress can be had, the Party is to be committed till the Forfeiture is paid. ”

“ It is true that if the prosecution in the courts of one country for a violation of its municipal law is in rem, to obtain a forfeiture of specific property within its jurisdiction, a judgment of forfeiture, rendered after due notice, and vesting the title of the property in the state, will be recognized and upheld in the courts of any other country in which the title to the property is brought in issue. ”

“ In some of the states, the man who sells liquors without due license, not only forfeits the liquors, to be sold again by public authority or to be destroyed, but he is also liable to punishment by fine or imprisonment, or both, besides the loss of his property, (the liquor) , by forfeiture. So, again, a forger may have many valuable tools, but the forfeiture of them is considered, in the eye of the law, as no part of the punishment of his crime. ”

“ The penalty of forfeiture is annexed to the act of making an entry knowingly by means of false invoices, or false certificate of the consul, or of any other invoice which contains an undervaluation, or by means of any other false or fraudulent documents or papers. No doubt one of the objects of the provision is to secure to the government the duties imposed by the statute, but another is, to protect the officers against imposition and fraud by the importer or agent, and to inculcate and enforce good faith and honest dealing with those officers while engaged in the execution of their duties. ”

“ But a review of the legislative history of the Act demonstrates that the Act does not seek forfeiture of property for its own sake merely to maximize the amount of money the Government collects. [7] The central purposes of the Act, properly understood, are fully served by an approach to forfeiture that leaves ample room for the exercise of statutory discretion.
Congress' most systematic goal for criminal forfeiture was to prevent the profits of criminal activity from being poured into future such activity, for "it is through economic power that [criminal activity] is sustained and grows." ”

“ It is true that where the United States, having possession of property, files a libel to enforce a forfeiture resulting from a violation of its laws, the fact that the possession was acquired by a wrongful act is immaterial. ”

“ It is elementary law that forfeitures are not favored, and that provisions for forfeiture must be strictly construed. The authorities also hold that these principles are applicable to forfeitures in insurance policies; that the provisions for forfeiture are inserted for the benefit of the companies and may be waived by them; and that courts will find a waiver upon slight evidence. [8]
Now, let us see how the company itself applied these principles to the facts of this case.
The company asserts by its special pleas that the policy was issued and delivered to the defendant April 6th, 1867 ”

“ And so of other instances where the title of the sovereign was derived from forfeiture. And in the case of United States v. Repentigny, [3] where the forfeiture to the government of lands arose from omission to perform the conditions of the grant, this court held that before the forfeiture could be consummated by reunion of the land with the public domain, 'a judicial inquiry should be instituted, or, in the technical language of the common law, office found, or its legal equivalent,' should take place. ”

“ In the present case the statute does not undertake to forfeit the lands for the failure to register them and pay the taxes upon them for the years stated, without a judicial proceeding by which the owner of the title may have the taxes assessed, and, upon payment thereof, the forfeiture avoided; and the forfeiture is declared only after a judicial proceeding instituted by the commonwealth's attorney, in which there is opportunity for a hearing and after which the forfeiture may be declared. ”

“ The first authorizes forfeiture of taxable 'articles' found in the possession, custody, or control of any person 'for the purpose of being sold or removed by him in fraud of the internal-revenue laws.' The second authorizes forfeiture of 'raw materials found in the possession of any person intending to manufacture the same into articles of a kind subject to tax,' with intent to defraud the revenue. ”

“ No man ought to sell any corne, ale bread or wine but by a measure sealed with this letter H., vpon paine of forfeiture for the first offence, 6s. 8d., for the second offence, 13s. 4d., and for the third offence twenty shillings, and to bee set on the pillorie, to the example of others, and the measure not sealed to be broken, all which forfeitures are to the Lord of the Libertie where such offence is committed, and if it be in a citie or borough, then it is to the maior and communaltie. ”

“ Norton (supra, p. 234) , shown that forfeitures are not favored in the law; and that courts are always prompt to seize hold of any circumstances that indicate an election to waive a forfeiture, or an agreement to do so on which the party has relied and acted. ”

“ To such proceedings all persons having an interest or title in the subject matter are, as we have already stated, in law, deemed parties; and the decree of the court is conclusive upon all interests and titles in controversy before it. The title of forfeiture is necessarily in controversy in a suit to establish that forfeiture; and therefore all persons having a right or interest in establishing it (as the seizing officer has) are, in legal contemplation, parties to the suit. It is a great mistake to consider the seizing officer as a mere stranger to the suit. ”

“ The whole argument turns upon this, that if the custom-house officers have not pursued the steps authorized by law to be pursued by them, by directing an appraisement of the goods, in cases where they have a suspicion of illegality or fraud, or no invoices are produced, but their suspicions are lulled to rest, the goods are untainted by the forfeiture, the moment they pass from the custom-house. ”

“ Provided always, that the Lords Marchers, of whom such Offenders, their Abettors and Receivers shall hold their Lands and Tenements, shall have the forfeiture thereof, and also the Forfeiture of their Goods and Chattels found within their Seigniories, after that they shall be attainted of such Offences ”

“ In respect to the other point, it is a general rule, that any person may seize any property forfeited to the use of the government, either by the municipal law, or by the law of prize, for the purpose of enforcing the forfeiture. ”

“ A forfeiture by the State of an interest in lands and connected franchises, granted for the construction of a public work, may be declared for non-compliance with the conditions annexed to their grant, or to their possession, when the forfeiture is provided by statute, without judicial proceedings to ascertain and determine the failure of the grantee to perform the conditions. ”

“ If the jury believe that the defendant wilfully and fraudulently, and without any reasonable or proper cause, declared the contract given in evidence forfeited, then the plaintiffs are entitled to recover, notwithstanding such declaration of forfeiture, for any damages arising to them, after such declaration of forfeiture, in consequence thereof. ”

“ If the cargo and equipments of the vessel are all innocent in their own nature, a forfeiture may, nevertheless, be decreed, provided there be positive proof of a guilty intention to employ her in the slave-trade. ”

“ By the law of England, informations by the attorney general, without the intervention of a grand jury, were not allowed for capital crimes, nor for any felony, by which was understood any offense which at common law occasioned a total forfeiture of the offender's lands or goods, or both. ”