Almost three years for an appeals court to come to this conclusion. That's (at least) two trials. (I mean, yes, it should be a no-brainer, but even people who are no-brainer wrong get their full chance in court.)
It's a bit more complicated than that (but no less reprehensible).
The government obtained a warrant to seize the business and, as a part of that, to do a routine inventory of what's inside the boxes. After securing the warrant, the FBI said "sike, we're gonna rifle through customers' stuff to see if we can uncover new crimes... and we're gonna keep the contents via civil forfeiture too."
Several folks sued, and then the government dragged their feet for a while, but eventually said "ok, we'll return your stuff, you have no legal standing anymore." The courts agreed.
The only outstanding issue was whether the government should be ordered to destroy any records / copies of what they found in the deposit boxes they were not supposed to investigate in the first place. That's where the courts differed. The appeals court decision is a pretty scathing criticism of the whole fiasco, but strictly speaking, it only delivers a verdict on that last question (yes, the government has to destroy it).
> The only outstanding issue was whether the government should be ordered to destroy any records / copies of what they found
We really need to reign in theft under the guise of civil forfeiture. If clear abuses like this don't get that issue raised in courts I wonder what it's going to take.
> Almost three years for an appeals court to come to this conclusion. That's (at least) two trials.
No, it is one trial. Appeals courts do not (in general [0], and did not in this case) conduct trials.
[0] There are cases where what is usually an appellate court, like the SCOTUS, has original jurisdiction over certain cases and conducts trials, but in those cases it is not an appellate court and there is no prior trial, and there are cases where specialized lower courts (small claims, traffic courts where they are separate and not a function of a court of general jurisdiction, etc.), can be appealed to a trial court of general jurisdiction, which will conduct a trial, either in the normal sense or on the record of the prior trial.
