United States v. $4,480,466.16 in Funds Seized from Bank of America account ending in 2653, No. 18-10801 (5th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseAfter the United States seized millions of dollars from a Texas vocational school, the school intervened as a claimant, denied the government’s allegations, and counterclaimed for constitutional tort damages against the government for ruining its business. The Fifth Circuit declined to address the correctness of the categorical rule barring all counterclaims in civil forfeiture proceedings, and held that the school's specific counterclaims were barred by sovereign immunity. Accordingly, the court held that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction and vacated the district court's dismissal, remanding with instructions to dismiss the counterclaims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction instead.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on November 5, 2019.
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