Kansas Statutes 60-4108. Same; management and preservation
(a) Property seized for forfeiture under this act is not subject to alienation, conveyance, sequestration, or attachment, nor is the property subject to a motion or order under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 22-2512, and amendments thereto. The seizing agency may release the property if forfeiture or retention is unnecessary, may transfer the property to any other city, county, state or federal agency or may transfer the action to another plaintiff‘s attorney by discontinuing forfeiture proceedings in favor of forfeiture proceedings initiated by the other agency.
(b) An owner of property seized pursuant to this act may obtain release of the property by posting with the plaintiff’s attorney or district court a surety bond or cash in the amount equal to the full fair market value of the property as determined by the plaintiff’s attorney. The seizing agency may refuse to release the property if the bond tendered is inadequate or if the property is retained as contraband or as evidence or if it is particularly altered or designed for use in conduct giving rise to forfeiture. If a surety bond or cash is posted and the property is forfeited, the court shall forfeit the surety bond or cash and any accrued interest in lieu of the property. On motion of either party, the adequacy of the bond or cash tendered may be reviewed by the court.
Terms Used In Kansas Statutes 60-4108
- Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Contraband: means any property the possession of which is illegal. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Conveyance: includes any vehicle, trailer, vessel, aircraft or other means of transportation. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
- Interest holder: means a secured party within the meaning of the uniform commercial code, a mortgagee, lien creditor, judgment creditor or the beneficiary of a security interest or encumbrance pertaining to an interest in property, whose interest would be perfected against a good faith purchaser for value. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
- Owner: means a person, other than an interest holder, who has an interest in property. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
- Proceeds: means anything of value, derived directly or indirectly from or realized through unlawful activity, including any monies used or intended to be used, or facilitate or intended to facilitate, the purchase, manufacture, cultivation, transportation, storage, distribution, sale, or possession of controlled substances or contraband. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Property: means anything of value, and includes any interest in property, including any benefit, privilege, claim or right with respect to anything of value, whether real or personal, tangible or intangible. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Seizing agency: means any department or agency of this state or its political subdivisions which regularly employs law enforcement officers and which employed the law enforcement officer who seized property for forfeiture, or such other agency as the seizing agency may designate in a particular case. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Seizure for forfeiture: means seizure of property by a law enforcement officer including a constructive seizure coupled with an assertion by the seizing agency or a plaintiff's attorney that the property is subject to forfeiture. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Kansas Statutes 77-201
- Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. Source: OCC
(c) If property is seized under this act, the seizing agency may, subject to any need to retain the property as evidence, do any of the following:
(1) Remove the property to an appropriate place designated by the court;
(2) place the property under constructive seizure;
(3) remove the property to a storage area for safekeeping or, if the property is a negotiable instrument or money, deposit it in an interest-bearing special trust account; or
(4) provide for another agency or custodian, including an owner, secured party, mortgagee, or lienholder, to take custody of the property and service, maintain and operate it as reasonably necessary to maintain the property’s value, in any appropriate location within the jurisdiction of the court.
(d) As soon as practicable after seizure for forfeiture, the seizing agency shall conduct a written inventory and estimate the value of the property seized.
(e) The court may order property which has been seized for forfeiture sold, leased, rented or operated to satisfy a specified interest of any interest holder, or to preserve the interests of any party on motion of such party. Sale may be ordered when the property is liable to perish, to waste, or to be foreclosed or significantly reduced in value, or when the expenses of maintaining the property are disproportionate to the property’s value. The court may enter orders under this subsection after notice to persons known to have an interest in the property, and an opportunity for a hearing, on all of the following conditions:
(1) That the interest holder has:
(A) Timely filed a proper claim; or
(B) an interest which the plaintiff’s attorney has stipulated is exempt from forfeiture;
(2) that if a sale is necessary, a third party designated by the court shall dispose of the property by commercially reasonable public sale and apply the proceeds to the reasonable expenses incurred in connection with the sale or disposal and then for the satisfaction of exempt interests in the order of their priority; and
(3) that the balance of the proceeds, if any, be preserved in the actual or constructive custody of the court, in an interest-bearing account, subject to further proceedings under this act.