Title 27
SECTION 72.34
72.34 Contents of the petition.
§ 72.34 Contents of the petition.(a) Description of the property. The petition should contain such a description of the property or carrier and such facts of the seizure as will enable the alcohol, tobacco and firearms officers concerned to identify the property or carrier.
(b) Statement regarding knowledge of seizure. In the event the petition is filed for the restoration of the proceeds derived from sale of the property or carrier pursuant to summary forfeiture, it should also contain, or be supported by, satisfactory proof that the petitioner did not know of the seizure prior to the declaration or condemnation of forfeiture, and that he was in such circumstances as prevented him from knowing of the same. (See also § 72.35.)
(c) Interest of petitioner. The petitioner should state in clear and concise terms the nature and amount of the present interest of the petitioner in the property or carrier, and the facts relied upon to show that the forfeiture was incurred without willful negligence or without any intention upon the part of the petitioner to defraud the revenue or to violate the law, or such other mitigating circumstances as, in the opinion of the petitioner, would justify the remission or mitigation of the forfeiture.
(d) Petitioner innocent party. If the petitioner is not the one who in person committed the act which caused the seizure the petition should state how the property or carrier came into the possession of such other person, and that the petitioner had no knowledge or reason to believe, if such be the fact, that the property or carrier would be used in violation of law. If known to the petitioner, at the time the petition is filed, that such other person had either a record or a reputation, or both, as a violator in the field of commercial crime, the petition should state whether the petitioner had actual knowledge of such record or reputation, or both, before the petitioner acquired his interest in the property or carrier, before such other person acquired his right in the property or carrier, whichever occurred later. When personal property is seized for violation of the liquor laws, the determining factor will be whether the person dealt with by the petitioner had either a record or a reputation, or both, as a violator of the liquor laws.
(e) Documents supporting claim. The petition should also be accompanied by copies, certified by the petitioner under oath as correct, of contracts, bills of sale, chattel mortgages, reports of investigators or credit reporting agencies, affidavits, and any other papers or documents that would tend to support the claims made in the petition.
(f) Costs. The petition should also contain an undertaking to pay the costs, if costs are assessed as a condition of allowance of the petition. Costs shall include all the expenses incurred in seizing and storing the property or carrier; the costs borne or to be borne by the United States; the taxes, if any, payable by the petitioner or imposed in respect of the property or carrier to which the petition relates; the penalty, if any, asserted by the Director; and, if the property or carrier has been sold, or is in the course of being sold, the expenses so incurred.