Opinion
Civil Action No. 07-cv-00344-ZLW-MJW.
June 6, 2007
ORDER
The matters before the Court are Plaintiff's Motion For Default Judgment And Final Order Of Forfeiture and Plaintiff's Amended Motion For Default Judgment And Final Order Of Forfeiture, which the Court treats as a supplemental rather than an amended motion. Rule G(4)(a)(iii) of the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty or Maritime Claims and Asset Forfeiture Actions, 28 U.S.C.A, requires that in a forfeiture action in rem arising from a federal statute, published notice of the action must appear:
(A) once a week for three consecutive weeks; or
(B) only once if, before the action was filed, notice of nonjudicial forfeiture of the same property was published on an official internet government forfeiture site for at least 30 consecutive days, or in a newspaper of general circulation for three consecutive weeks in a district where publication is authorized under Rule G(4)(a)(iv).
Here, Plaintiff submits that published notice was proper under Rule G(4)(a)(iii)(B) because the United States Drug Enforcement Agency published notice of nonjudicial administrative forfeiture once a week for three consecutive weeks on October 9, 16, and 23, 2006, in the Wall Street Journal, and notice thereafter was published once in the Daily Journal on March 12, 2007. However, subparagraph (B) requires that notice of nonjudicial forfeiture be published "in a newspaper of general circulation for three consecutive weeks," (emphasis added), which, as the Court reads the statute, means 21 consecutive days, not once a week for three weeks. Thus, notice was insufficient and the motion will be denied without prejudice. The Court will reconsider should Plaintiff submit authority supporting a contrary interpretation. Accordingly, it is
ORDERED that the Motion For Default Judgment And Final Order Of Forfeiture (Doc. No. 12) and the Amended Motion For Default Judgment And Final Order Of Forfeiture (Doc. No. 13) which the Court treats as a supplemental motion, are denied without prejudice.