Background

• This is a Texas civil forfeiture case involving 37 eight-liner gaming machines and $1,760 seized from Magic Games Game Room owned by Sammy Dean Barnes after a search warrant was executed by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department.
• Seizure and forfeiture proceeded under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure art. 18.18; the eight-liners were forfeited by the justice court and appealed to the county court at law for trial de novo.
• The court of appeals reversed, holding the exclusion in Penal Code §47.01(4)(B) applied because tickets could be redeemed for non-immediate rights of replay, which it treated as novelties.
• The State petitioned for review, contending that non-immediate rights of replay are not novelties and thus do not fall within the exclusion.
• The Texas Supreme Court conducted de novo statutory construction and held that the exclusion does not apply because non-immediate rights of replay are not novelties as used in §47.01(4)(B); the eight-liners are not exempt from forfeiture.
• The court reversed the court of appeals, reinstating the county court’s judgment forfeiting the eight-liners to the State.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• Hardy v. State, 102 S.W.3d 123 (Tex. 2003) (exclusion applies only when rewards are exclusively noncash prizes or similar items; cash-like rewards negate exclusion)
• Tex. Lottery Comm’n v. First State Bank of DeQueen, 325 S.W.3d 628 (Tex. 2010) (statutory interpretation; discern Legislature’s intent from plain text)
• In re Hall, 286 S.W.3d 925 (Tex. 2009) (nosctitur a sociis principle; context governs undefined terms)
• Fiess v. State Farm Lloyds, 202 S.W.3d 744 (Tex. 2006) (contextual construction of terms within statutory scheme)
• TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. v. Combs, 340 S.W.3d 432 (Tex. 2011) (general rule that undefined terms are given ordinary meaning within statute context)