People v. Superior Court (Drummer)

Opinion

THE COURT.

*

The issue raised by this mandate petition is whether Health and Safety Code section 11488.2 establishes a 15-day statute of limitations for the filing of a petition for forfeiture of currency alleged to be the proceeds of drug trafficking.

1

The Legislature has since specified a one-year statute of limitations. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11488.4, subd. (a), effective Sept. 22, 1987.) This new provision, however, will expire on Janu

[107]

ary 1, 1989, unless the Legislature acts anew.

(Id,

§ 11488.4, subd. (/).) Section 11488.2 has not been repealed or amended.

2

Executing a search warrant at real parties’ home on April 29, 1987, officers of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department found and seized, inter alia, drugs and a large amount of currency. In the next 15 days, the sheriff’s department did not initiate forfeiture proceedings; nor did it return the currency to real parties.

3

The record does not suggest the existence of a notice to withhold issued by the Franchise Tax Board. On July 7—some 69 days after the seizure—the sheriff’s department brought the seizure to the attention of the district attorney’s forfeiture unit. The district attorney filed a petition for forfeiture (§ 11488.1) on July 27.

Relying on section 11488.2, real parties moved to strike the forfeiture petition on the ground it had not been filed within 15 days after the seizure. The trial court granted the motion, and this petition followed.

Petitioner concedes section 11488.2 requires it to return the currency to real parties. It contends, however, that dismissal of the forfeiture proceeding is not a necessary concomitant of return of the seized property, and that section 11488.2 is not a statute of limitations for commencement of a section 11488.1 petition for forfeiture.