United States v. Ripa

In November 1983, the United States seized $359,500 from Benedetto Romano (defendant). On the same day, the United States filed tax liens against Romano regarding the seized currency. The United States subsequently brought a civil forfeiture suit regarding the seized money, which was suspended while the United States pursued unsuccessful criminal tax-evasion charges against Romano. Romano won the forfeiture suit in 1998. According to Romano, the seizure prevented him from paying the tax due on the seized money, and the interest that he received for the seized money was so low that his tax debt ultimately dwarfed the seized money plus interest (the fund). Due to the tax liens, the district court permitted the United States to bring an interpleader-like claim regarding the fund. Romano’s attorney in the forfeiture suit, Glenn Ripa (defendant), argued that pursuant to Internal Revenue Code (code) § 6323(b)(8), Ripa had a superpriority attorney’s lien against a portion of the fund based on his contingency-fee arrangement with Romano. The United States responded that its liens had the highest priority under the “first in time, first in right” principle and that § 6323(b)(8) was inapplicable because this case involved a judgment of a claim or cause of action against the United States. The district court granted summary judgment to the United States. Romano and Ripa appealed. Per Ripa, the forfeiture-suit judgment for Romano was not a judgment against the United States within the meaning of § 6323(b)(8), because the rendering court ruled that the money was always Romano’s property and was never the property of the United States.