COMMITTEE ON CIVIL PRACTICE LAW AND RULES

REPORT NO. 34 April 25, 1997

A. 1741 By: M of A Pillittere

Assembly Committee: Codes

Effective Date: 1st day of January next

succeeding the date on

which it shall become a law

AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to forfeiture of the proceeds of a felony related to a sexual performance by a child

LAW AND SECTION REFERRED TO: CPLR 1310(6); 1349(2)(g)(h); 1349(2)(i)(new)

REPORT PREPARED BY THE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL PRACTICE LAW AND RULES (#11)

THIS BILL IS DISAPPROVED

This bill would expand the grounds for civil forfeiture to include those convicted or indicted for offenses of the statute prohibiting child sex performances. While the eradication of such activity is laudable, this bill is overbroad.

This bill would subject individuals who are indicted to face forfeiture sanctions. Such expansion, while conforming in some degree with the current statutes against drug defendants, would still expand into an area that borders regular commercial activities. The standards for proceeding with forfeiture would encompass many activities currently protected as art in the entertainment industry, but would require further prosecutional analysis. This statute selects one additional form of conduct punishable by the criminal statutes and makes it subject to forfeiture. There is no clear rational for adding instances of criminal conduct to the civil forfeiture provisions. Rather than engage in a piecemeal basis, the legislature should enact a broad scope of forfeiture statute if that is in the legislature's determination. It is inappropriate to select individual acts of criminal conduct to be so punished. This bill also establishes a complex distribution of the funds obtained, which are properly located in substantive statutes.

For the above reasons, the proposed bill is DISAPPROVED.

Person Who Prepared The Report: Matthew J. Kelly, Esq.

Chair of the Committee: Paul H. Aloe, Esq.