Hammond Co. v. United States

ORDER

Plaintiffs State Savings and Loan and The Hammond Company move to amend a prior judgment to provide for the award of interest on money wrongfully levied upon by the Internal Revenue Service. The wrongful nature of the levy was determined on a motion for summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs on March 21, 1983.

I. FACTS

In June of 1982, Andrew Fellner and Robert B. Palmer, intervenors in this action, were arrested by federal agents for the violation of various federal anti-fraud statutes. At the time of Fellner’s arrest, he was carrying a briefcase containing $1,132,-550 (“the Briefcase money”). This money was seized and immediately deposited into an interest-bearing account. Shortly thereafter, F.B.I. agents located a second cache in a locker at the Seattle airport. This fund consisted of $100,000 in U.S. dollars and $1,169,385 in Swiss Francs (“the Seattle money”). The Seattle money was seized by the F.B.I. and deposited in a vault at its regional office in Seattle.

The arrests and seizures were based on a two count information implicating Fellner and Palmer in an elaborate real estate fraud and forgery scheme to defraud plaintiff State Savings of approximately $9…