United States v. One Lincoln Navigator 1998, Freddie Bearden Wanda Breedlove Andrews, Claimants-Appellants

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that where state law defines the “owner” of a vehicle as “a person who holds the legal title,” such legal title “establishes a prima facie case of ownership,” which, in the circumstances, conferred standing to contest the vehicle’s forfeiture
• applying state law to determine ownership interest, before concluding that the claimant had constitutional standing
• “Although many cases refer to [the definition of owner] as part of the standing inquiry, it is in fact an element of the innocent owner’s claim on the merits.” (internal quotation marks omitted)
• “This threshold burden is not rigorous: To have standing, a claimant ... need only show a colorable interest in the property, redressable, at least in part, by a return of the property.” (internal quotation and citation omitted)
• “Ownership interests are defined by state law with one important exception — Congress has declared that ‘a nominee who exercises no dominion or control over the property’ may not be an innocent owner.” (citation omitted)
• distinguishing between these two inquiries

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).