Commercial Credit Co. v. United States

This is an appeal from a judgment forfeiting an automobile under section 3450 of' the Revised Statutes (26 USCA § 1181). The ease was submitted to the court below on an agreed statement of facts, from which it appeared that on the evening of December 13,1927, one Smart drove an automobile, containing a five-gallon keg of moonshine whisky, through the streets and into a garage at Boise, Ida-ho; that two federal prohibition agents, having been advised that Smart would drive the automobile to the garage at the time in question, stationed themselves within a block of the garage, where they could observe all that took place; that as soon as the automobile was driven into the garage, two men drove np in a small ear and received from Smart a package of some kind and drove away; that immediately after the two men drove away, the agents went to the garage, arrested Smart, and seized the automobile and moonshine whisky; that Smart was thereafter convicted of the crime of unlawfully possessing the intoxicating liquor found in the automobile; that the appellant was the owner of the automobile, under a conditional contract of sale, and had no notice or knowledge that Smart, the purchaser,…