FOSTER v. USA
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in FOSTER v. USA, No. 06-56843, an appeal in a civil action against the United States. The panel consisted of John R. Gibson, Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, and Susan P. Graber, Circuit Judges.
GRABER, Circuit Judge:
Plaintiff Thomas Foster sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (”FTCA”), 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), alleging that agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (”ATF”) damaged hundreds of his handguns and long guns, as well as ammunition and packaging, which the ATF agents had seized. The district court dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Specifically, the court ruled that the government had seized the property for the purpose of criminal investigation, not forfeiture, so the “detention of goods” exception to the FTCA, 28 U.S.C. § 2680(c), applied. We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Because the district court dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, we take the facts from Plaintiff’s Second Amended Complaint. GATX/Airlog Co. v. United States, 286 F.3d 1168, 1173 (9th Cir. 2002). On July 28 and July 31, 2000, ATF agents who were executing search warrants seized a large number of firearms–more than 800 in all –and ammunition from storage spaces rented by Plaintiff. The search warrants authorized federal officers to seize the property as “contraband, evidence of the crime, fruits of the crime, [and/or] instruments of the crime” of trafficking in illegal firearms. When the warrants were executed, Plaintiff was in custody pursuant to federal firearms charges in a separate criminal matter. He was later acquitted. On April 10, 2001, the ATF sent Plaintiff a letter stating that the property seized on July 31, 2000, was seized by the. . .