## Facts

- Consumers in Florida and Pennsylvania bought household goods on conditional sales contracts that left sellers with title while buyers retained possession during installment payments.
- After disputes and alleged defaults, sellers sought prejudgment replevin writs through ex parte applications supported by a bond (typically double the property’s value).
- Clerks issued the writs in the name of the state, and sheriffs seized the goods from buyers without prior notice or an opportunity to contest the seizure.
- Florida allowed buyers to regain possession by posting a counter-bond within three days; otherwise the seller kept the goods pending judgment.
- Pennsylvania permitted issuance based on minimal filings (including an affidavit of value) and did not require the creditor to file an underlying action; buyers could obtain a hearing only by initiating a separate proceeding, and could also post a counter-bond within three days.
- Three-judge federal district courts upheld the statutes; the purchasers appealed, claiming the procedures violated the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.

## Issues

1. Whether state prejudgment replevin procedures authorizing ex parte seizure of a person’s goods without prior notice and an opportunity to be heard violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
2. Whether standard-form contract clauses permitting repossession constitute a knowing and voluntary waiver of the right to pre-seizure notice and hearing.
3. Whether these statutes fall within a narrow category of “extraordinary situations” permitting seizure without prior notice and hearing.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court vacated and remanded, holding the Florida and Pennsylvania prejudgment replevin statutes unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- Due process generally requires notice and an opportunity for a hearing before the state authorizes seizure of property at the request of another private party.
- The temporary nature of the deprivation and the availability of counter-bonds or post-seizure proceedings did not cure the lack of a pre-seizure hearing.
- The bond requirement was not an adequate substitute for a pre-seizure hearing.
- The contractual repossession language did not constitute a valid waiver of due process rights.
- The challenged procedures did not qualify as “extraordinary situations” justifying seizure without prior notice and hearing.

## Legal Principles

- Procedural due process ordinarily requires notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before the government, through its officers, deprives a person of possession of property.
- A deprivation of possession is constitutionally significant even if temporary and even if later remedies or hearings are available.
- State involvement is sufficient for Fourteenth Amendment scrutiny when writs are issued under state authority and executed by state officials to aid private creditors.
- Seizure without prior notice and hearing is permissible only in limited exceptional circumstances requiring: (1) an important governmental interest, (2) a special need for very prompt action, and (3) initiation and assessment by a responsible government official.
- Waiver of constitutional procedural protections must be knowing, intelligent, and voluntary; boilerplate provisions in consumer form contracts generally do not establish such a waiver.

## Conclusion

The Court held that ex parte prejudgment replevin schemes allowing state officials to seize a possessor’s goods for a private creditor without prior notice and hearing violate the Due Process Clause, absent narrowly confined exceptional circumstances and absent a valid, knowing waiver.


Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67 (1972)