15 U.S.C. § 1265 — Seizures
submitted 66 years ago by Pub. L. 86-613 to r/title-15-COMMERCE-AND-TRADE · 821 words · no verdicts yet
Misbranded or banned hazardous substances may be condemned in a United States district court, subject to an export exception. The section sets seizure, consolidation, disposal, costs, and case-transfer rules.
(a) A misbranded or banned hazardous substance* is subject to a condemnation case if it is introduced into or in interstate commerce*, held for sale after interstate shipment, barred from interstate introduction by section 1263(f), or manufactured in violation of section 1263(g). The case may be brought while the substance is in interstate commerce or later, by a libel of information, in the United States district where it is found. This does not apply to a substance intended for export if it is packaged to the foreign buyer’s specifications, labeled as the foreign country’s laws require, marked on the outside as intended for export, and actually exported. (b) The substance may be seized under process issued in the condemnation case. The procedure should be as close as possible to admiralty procedure, but either party may demand a jury for a factual issue. If cases involving the same claimant and the same misbranding issues are pending in two or more districts, the United States or claimant may timely ask one court to consolidate them for trial in a district chosen by the applicant where a case is pending or in a district agreed by the parties. If no consolidation order is timely made, the court, after notice and a chance to be heard, must ordinarily choose a reasonably nearby district to the claimant’s main business and consolidate the cases there. The order does not move a case whose trial date is already fixed. The ordering court must promptly notify the others. (c) After the decree of condemnation is entered, the condemned substance must be disposed of by destruction or sale as the court directs under this section. If it is sold, the proceeds, minus legal costs and charges, must be paid into the United States Treasury. The substance may not be sold contrary to this chapter or the law where sold. After the decree, payment of proceeding costs, and a sufficient bond promising lawful destruction or compliance, the court may release it to its owner for destruction or compliance under a Commission*-designated officer’s supervision; the person* obtaining release pays that supervision. (d) Court costs, fees, storage, and other proper expenses are charged to any person who intervenes as claimant. (e) When a case is transferred, the original clerk must promptly send necessary records to the trial court. The receiving court has the powers and duties the original court would have had.
Any misbranded hazardous substance* or banned hazardous substance* when introduced into or while in interstate commerce* or while held for sale (whether or not the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce, or which may not, under the provisions of section 1263(f) of this title, be introduced into interstate commerce, or which has been manufactured in violation of section 1263(g) of this title, shall be liable to be proceeded against while in interstate commerce or at any time thereafter, on libel of information and condemned in any district court in the United States within the jurisdiction of which the hazardous substance* is found: Provided, That this section shall not apply to a hazardous substance intended for export to any foreign country if it (1) is in a package branded in accordance with the specifications of the foreign purchaser, (2) is labeled in accordance with the laws of the foreign country, and (3) is labeled on the outside of the shipping package to show that it is intended for export, and (4) is so exported.
Such hazardous substance shall be liable to seizure by process pursuant to the libel, and the procedure in cases under this section shall conform, as nearly as may be, to the procedure in admiralty; except that on demand of either party any issue of fact joined in any such case shall be tried by jury. When libel for condemnation proceedings under this section, involving the same claimant and the same issues of misbranding, are pending in two or more jurisdictions, such pending proceedings, upon application of the United States or the claimant seasonably made to the court of one such jurisdiction, shall be consolidated for trial by order of such court, and tried in (1) any district selected by the applicant where one of such proceedings is pending; or (2) a district agreed upon by stipulation between the parties. If no order for consolidation is so made within a reasonable time, the United States or the claimant may apply to the court of one such jurisdiction, and such court (after giving the other party, the claimant, or the United States attorney for such district, reasonable notice and opportunity to be heard) shall by order, unless good cause to the contrary is shown, specify a district of reasonable proximity to the claimant’s principal place of business, in which all such pending proceedings shall be consolidated for trial and tried. Such order of consolidation shall not apply so as to require the removal of any case the date for trial of which has been fixed. The court granting such order shall give prompt notification thereof to the other courts having jurisdiction of the cases covered thereby.
Any hazardous substance condemned under this section shall, after entry of the decree, be disposed of by destruction or sale as the court may, in accordance with the provisions of this section, direct and the proceeds thereof, if sold, less the legal costs and charges, shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States; but such hazardous substance shall not be sold under such decree contrary to the provisions of this chapter or the laws of the jurisdiction in which sold: Provided, That, after entry of the decree and upon the payment of the costs of such proceedings and the execution of a good and sufficient bond conditioned that such hazardous substance shall not be sold or disposed of contrary to the provisions of this chapter or the laws of any State or territory* in which sold, the court may by order direct that such hazardous substance be delivered to the owner thereof to be destroyed or brought into compliance with the provisions of this chapter under the supervision of an officer or employee duly designated by the Commission*, and the expense of such supervision shall be paid by the person* obtaining release of the hazardous substance under bond.
When a decree of condemnation is entered against the hazardous substance, court costs and fees, and storage and other proper expenses, shall be awarded against the person, if any, intervening as claimant of the hazardous substance.
In the case of removal for trial of any case as provided by subsection (b)—
the clerk of the court from which removal is made shall promptly transmit to the court in which the case is to be tried all records in the case necessary in order that such court may exercise jurisdiction;
the court to which such case is removed shall have the powers and be subject to the duties, for purposes of such case, which the court from which removal was made would have had, or to which such court would have been subject, if such case had not been removed.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 86–613, § 6, July 12, 1960, 74 Stat. 376; Pub. L. 89–756, §§ 2(h), 3(d), Nov. 3, 1966, 80 Stat. 1304, 1305; Pub. L. 110–314, title II, § 204(b)(4)(B), Aug. 14, 2008, 122 Stat. 3041.)
- 1960Enacted · Pub. L. 86-613 · 74 Stat. 376
- 1966Amended · Pub. L. 89-756 · 80 Stat. 1304, 1305
- 2008Amended · Pub. L. 110-314 · 122 Stat. 3041
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 86-613 on 1960-07-12.
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