§ 140B.105.Seizure of Property

When property can be taken before any judgment, and the exceptions are narrow.

The rule is process first: property subject to forfeiture may be seized by a law enforcement officer on court process.

Two exceptions permit seizure without process. Where the seizure is incident to a lawful arrest or a search conducted under a warrant issued under Chapter 18, Code of Criminal Procedure. Or where the property has been the subject of a previous judgment in favor of the state in a forfeiture action under this subchapter.

The first exception is not truly an exception to judicial oversight. A lawful arrest and a search warrant each involve a judicial determination already; the officer is not making an independent decision to seize.

The second is unusual and worth understanding. Property already forfeited once has been through a proceeding in which the state proved its case, so a second seizure needs no fresh process. It reaches property that returned to the same hands after an earlier forfeiture.

Subsection (b) is the safeguard, and it is the important half of the section: for a seizure conducted under this section, an investigative agency shall promptly commence a forfeiture action.

Without that, seizure could stand indefinitely without any proceeding. The duty is mandatory, and it turns a seizure into the opening step of litigation rather than an outcome in itself.

It also gives the owner a forum. The forfeiture action is where the property can be defended, and the obligation to commence it promptly is what makes that opportunity real.