United States v. Howell F. Burch

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge.

This case involving the seizure and condemnation of property allegedly used in the manufacture of illicit whiskey raises one primary question for our consideration. That is whether an earlier acquittal of Burch in a criminal prosecution involving possession of the same property made the subject of this libel of forfeiture operates as a bar to the present action on principles of res judicata, or more properly collateral estoppel. Consideration of this question, though, branches into two distinct inquiries. First, whether the fact that the criminal prosecution was…