California Court of Appeal

A petition for writ of mandate seeking to direct the superior court to vacate its order denying his motion to compel the return of personal property is granted, where: 1) the forfeiture proceedings were invalid because they were initiated by the City of Tulare Police Department and not a proper prosecutorial agency; 2) because forfeiture is disfavored and the relevant statutes are to be strictly construed in favor of the person against whom forfeiture is sought, notice must be provided by the Attorney General or the district attorney as expressly provided for in the applicable statutes, and here, the notice was invalid; and 3) the notice of nonjudicial forfeiture proceedings contained defects in the form of the identity of the property seized and the location of seizure.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/06/2013
• Published 12/06/2013

Judges

• PEÑA

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel