August Term, 2022 Argued: May 3, 2023 Decided: August 4, 2023

No. 22-659 ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

CRISTAL STARLING, Claimant-Appellant,

$8,040.00 UNITED STATES CURRENCY, Defendant.

____________________ Before: KEARSE, JACOBS, and MENASHI, Circuit Judges.

Police officers seized just over $8,000 in a search of Cristal Starling’s home carried out as part of a drug trafficking investigation into her then-boyfriend, K.B. The local police turned over the funds to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which initiated an administrative forfeiture procedure to claim the funds as proceeds from drug sales. Acting pro se, Starling filed a claim to the assets, forcing the government to terminate its administrative seizure and open a judicial forfeiture proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. She failed to timely oppose the ensuing judicial proceeding, and the clerk of court entered default against the funds.

Starling, still acting pro se, then sent several letters to the district court and the U.S. Attorney’s Office seeking leave to file a belated claim to the seized assets. The district court (Siragusa, J.) held that Starling had not shown excusable neglect, denied her an extension of time to file a claim, and entered final default judgment against the seized assets.

We hold that the district court erred in granting default judgment to the government. Starling’s letters are properly viewed as seeking both to lift the entry of default and to be granted leave to file an untimely claim to the assets. So understood, Starling’s motion should have been assessed under the more permissive good cause standard, as is any other motion to lift entry of default in a civil suit.

2 We therefore VACATE the grant of the motion to strike and the entry of default judgment, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

____________________

ROBERT E. JOHNSON (Seth M. Young, on the brief), Institute for Justice, Shaker Heights, OH, for Claimant- Appellant. MICHAEL A. ROTKER (Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, and Lisa H. Miller, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, on the brief), United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Appellee. Grace M. Carducci, Assistant United States Attorney, for Trini E. Ross, United States Attorney for the Western District of New York, Buffalo, N.Y., for Plaintiff-Appellee.

DENNIS JACOBS, Circuit Judge:

Police officers seized just over $8,000 in a search of Cristal Starling’s home carried out as part of a drug trafficking investigation into her then-boyfriend, K.B.1 The local police turned over the funds to the U.S. Drug Enforcement

1 Because he was apparently acquitted of all charges and his state court records are sealed, see N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.50, his name is omitted from this opinion.

3 Administration, which initiated an administrative forfeiture procedure to claim the funds as proceeds from drug sales. Acting pro se, Starling filed a claim to the assets, forcing the government to terminate its administ