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DaVinci Aircraft, Inc. v. United States, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 17-55719 · judgment June 12, 2019

Certiorari denied · October 21, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 5% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a petition filed soon after the judgment below, a Ninth Circuit decision below, and a business petitioner.

Questions presented

  1. Does the exception for forfeitures created by the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA), Pub. L. No. 106-185, § 3, 114 Stat. 202 for property “seized for the purpose of forfeiture” apply to goods seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment?

  2. Does the CAFRA exception and the “detention of goods” exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 26801(h) bar the district court from exercising subject matter jurisdiction barring such claims when a Federal government agency’s “discretionary action” is based on an allegedly false and fraudulent claim that the goods are “classified” and subject to security controls that would involve criminal liability under the Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d)?

  3. Can the district court’s denial of a request for leave to file an amended complaint naming additional individual defendants, unknown at the time of filing but named as Does 1-10, invalidate the claim under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971)?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Abraham Richard Wagner
Law Office of Abraham Wagner

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Oct 21 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Oct 02 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/18/2019.
  3. Sep 16 2019
    Waiver of right of respondents United States, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Aug 14 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 18, 2019)