State v. Foley

The threshold issue in this case is whether the phrase “gear or equipment,” which appears in the civil forfeiture statute, ORS 506.655, includes boats. I believe it does not. A review of the legislative history of the forfeiture statutes supports a definition of “gear or equipment” that excludes boats.

From 1921 through 1965, all “fish traps, poundnets, gillnets, set nets, fish wheels, fishing boats and vessels used in fishing and apparatus” were referred to as “appliances” and could be civilly or criminally forfeited. See, e.g., OCLA 83-318. When the civil and criminal forfeiture statutes…