Source: https://casetext.com/case/corngold-v-united-states
Timestamp: 2019-08-18 17:24:55
Document Index: 666269064

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 482', '§ 482', '§ 1595', '§ 482', '§ 1581', '§ 1581', '§ 482', '§ 482', '§ 482', '§ 482', '§ 482', '§ 482', '§ 482', '§ 501', '§ 251']

Corngold v. United States, 367 F.2d 1 | Casetext
Corngold v. United States
Corngoldv.United States
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth CircuitSep 29, 1966
Appellant contends that the walls of his apartment were "penetrated" and his apartment was searched by means of the scintillation detector in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights, and that it was error to admit evidence obtained in this way.
1. The officers had no warrant, and there were no circumstances which might have justified a search without one. No arrest was made to which a search without a warrant might be incident. The government made no showing that the packages might be removed before a warrant could be obtained. Appellant was not threatening to remove them, nor was the airline, except under such conditions as the officers saw fit to impose. From the time appellant left the packages with the carrier in Los Angeles they were subject to the effective control of the customs agents. There was nothing to prevent the agents from securing a warrant on a proper showing, either before the packages were shipped from Los Angeles or after they arrived in New York. On this record, search without a warrant was not justified even if the customs agents had probable cause to believe the packages contained contraband. Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 613-616, 81 S.Ct. 776, 5 L.Ed.2d 828 (1961); Jones v. United States, 357 U.S. 493, 497-498, 78 S.Ct. 1253, 2 L.Ed.2d 1514 (1958); United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 51-52, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59 (1951); Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948); Agnello v. United States, 269 U.S. 20, 33, 46 S.Ct. 4, 70 L.Ed. 145 (1925).
Hernandez v. United States, 353 F.2d 624 (9th Cir. 1965), is not to the contrary. There local officers, whose jurisdiction was limited to their state, searched the luggage of an interstate air passenger who was scheduled to depart before a warrant could have been obtained.
2. The government makes a passing suggestion that authority for the search may be found in 19 U.S.C.A. § 482 — a broad delegation of authority to customs agents to search and seize illegally imported merchandise. We have treated the outer limits of authority delegated by the statute as available only in border searches (Cervantes v. United States, 263 F.2d 800, 803, n. 5 (9th Cir. 1959); see e.g., King v. United States, 348 F.2d 814 (9th Cir. 1965); Denton v. United States, 310 F.2d 129, 132 (9th Cir. 1962); Plazola v. United States, 291 F.2d 56, 61 (9th Cir. 1961); Witt v. United States, 287 F.2d 389, 391 (9th Cir. 1961); Murgia v. United States, 285 F.2d 14, 17 (9th Cir. 1960)), and there is nothing in the record to suggest that the search of appellant's packages occurred in the course of an entry into this country. However, we need not examine the statute's precise meaning, for appellant's attack upon the search of his package is based solely on constitutional grounds; and, however it is to be read, the statute could not effectively authorize a search which the Constitution prohibited. Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 6 S.Ct. 523, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886).
The holding in Romero v. United States, 318 F.2d 530 (5th Cir. 1963), may appear to be to the contrary, but see the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit collected in Mansfield v. United States, 308 F.2d 221, 223 (5th Cir. 1962), and its later decision in Marsh v. United States, 344 F.2d 317, 324-325 (5th Cir. 1965).
After appellant and his companions departed, the four customs agents returned and spoke to TWA's transportation agent. They conducted a scintillator test of the packages for his benefit, and told him they suspected the packages contained watches. They gave him appellant's true name and pointed out that this was not the name of the shipper appearing on the waybill. They asked him if he had authority to open the packages, and he stated that he did. They then asked him if he wanted to open the packages, and told him that if he did they wanted to be with him. He then read the inspection clause of the TWA tariff, and telephoned his supervisor.
The clause read, "Inspection of Shipments. Shipments are subject to inspection by carriers to determine their acceptability and to determine proper charges thereon."
But the evidence would be excludable in the present case even if the TWA employee had not acted solely to satisfy the government's interest in viewing the contents of the package, but instead had initiated and participated in the search for reasons contemplated by the inspection clause in TWA's tariff. The customs agents joined actively in the search. They held open the flaps of the large package; removed, opened, and inspected the contents of the small boxes which it contained; and marked the small boxes for future identification. Thus, at the very least, the search of appellant's package was a joint operation of the customs agents and the TWA employee. When a federal agent participates in such a joint endeavor, "the effect is the same as though he had engaged in the undertaking as one exclusively his own." Byars v. United States, supra, 273 U.S. 28, at 33, 47 S.Ct. 248 at 250, 71 L.Ed. 520. As Justice Frankfurter said in Lustig v. United States, 338 U.S. 74, 78-79, 69 S.Ct. 1372, 1374, 93 L.Ed. 1819 (1949):
If such a search does not meet Fourth Amendment standards, evidence which it discloses is excludable even though the search would have been lawful had the federal agents not participated. Lustig v. United States, supra, 338 U.S. at 79, 69 S.Ct. 1372; Byars v. United States, supra, 273 U.S. at 29, 47 S.Ct. 248.
Also irrelevant are cases holding that the rights of the owner of personal property are not violated where the property is observed during a search made with the consent of another who has an equal and independent right of access to the place searched. See, e.g., Nelson v. People of State of California, 346 F.2d 73, 77 (9th Cir. 1965); Burge v. United States, 342 F.2d 408 (9th Cir. 1965); Von Eichelberger v. United States, 252 F.2d 184, 186 (9th Cir. 1958); Woodard v. United States, 102 U.S.App.D.C. 393, 254 F.2d 312 (1958). The independent right to authorize entry does not depend upon the wishes of the owner of personal property which may be on the premises. Roberts v. United States, 332 F.2d 892, 897 (8th Cir. 1964). Thus, TWA could grant access to its own loading area without regard to appellant's wishes. But the contents of appellant's package were not observed during a search of TWA's loading area. They were disclosed by a search of the package itself. TWA and its employees had no right of access to appellant's package independent of appellant's consent. The right of the customs agents to search appellant's package must rest upon a showing that appellant himself waived his personal right of privacy "by word or deed, either directly or through an agent." Stoner v. State of California, supra, 376 U.S. at 489, 84 S.Ct. at 893. See also Holzhey v. United States, 223 F.2d 823 (5th Cir. 1955).
The owner of personal property may bring his right of privacy to an end by abandoning the property. See e.g., Abel v. United States, 362 U.S. 217, 240-241, 80 S.Ct. 683, 4 L.Ed.2d 668 (1960); Feguer v. United States, 302 F.2d 214, 248-249 (8th Cir. 1962). He may expressly authorize another to acquiesce in a search of his personal property. Or he may give another such complete and unrestricted freedom over his property that he will be held to have accepted the risk that the person will consent to a search; he may, in other words, impliedly authorize another to consent to an invasion of his right of privacy. Sartain v. United States, 303 F.2d 859 (9th Cir. 1962), and United States v. Eldridge, 302 F.2d 463 (4th Cir. 1962), are such cases. See generally Note, 113 U.Pa.L.Rev. 260, 272-76 (1964).
Appellant did not abandon his package; and mere surrender of custody to a carrier did not forfeit appellant's right to privacy. See Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 733, 24 L.Ed. 877 (1878); Santana v. United States, 329 F.2d 854, 856 (1st Cir. 1964); Oliver v. United States, 239 F.2d 818, 820-821, 61 A.L.R.2d 1273 (8th Cir. 1957). He did not expressly authorize TWA to consent to search of his package by customs agents. Therefore, unless appellant impliedly authorized TWA to acquiesce in such a search, TWA's consent could not bind appellant. The facts negate any intention to grant TWA such broad authority. Appellant's package, securely wrapped and tied, was delivered to the airline solely for transportation from Los Angeles to New York, and the inspection clause in TWA's tariff authorized examination only by the carrier itself.
I respectfully dissent from the majority conclusion that this record discloses an unconstitutional search of two packages left for shipment to New York at the Los Angeles International Airport by the appellant on September 30, 1962.
In his Cardozo Lecture before The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Chief Justice Traynor of the California Supreme Court pointed out that in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 657, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 1693, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), Mr. Justice Clark asserted: "There is no war between the Constitution and common sense." The first, primary and most important function of the criminal legal process is to ascertain the truth — the guilt or innocence of the person accused of crime. It is my belief that the majority opinion strains to find reason for reversing this appellant's conviction, and distorts the factual picture in order to accomplish this purpose by concluding the search was an unreasonable one.
We do not deal in absolutes. Searches and seizures as such are not prohibited by our Constitution, but only those which, because of the particular and peculiar facts and circumstances surrounding the actual performance of their sworn duties by law enforcement officers, cause the courts of this land, in the exercise of good common sense, to declare that conduct "unreasonable." (Amendment IV.)
"The Constitution condemns only an unreasonable search. As my Brother FRANKFURTER says, that determination `turns on the circumstances presented by a particular situation.'" Mr. Justice Clark dissenting in Chapman v. United States, supra, 365 U.S. at 618-619, 81 S. Ct. at 781. And see United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 107, n. 2, 85 S. Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965); Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960); Husty v. United States, 282 U.S. 694, 51 S.Ct. 240, 75 L.Ed. 629 (1931); Godette v. United States, 199 F.2d 331 (4th Cir. 1952).
That the issue as to reasonableness of a search differs with the facts of each case has long been recognized by the Supreme Court. The rules for search of a home differ from those relating to the search of an automobile, or an airplane.
"Common sense dictates, of course, that questions involving searches of motorcars or other things readily moved cannot be treated as identical to questions arising out of searches of fixed structures like houses. For this reason, what may be an unreasonable search of a house may be reasonable in the case of a motorcar. See Carroll v. United States, supra, 267 U.S. [132], at 153 [45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L. Ed. 543]." Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 366-367, 84 S.Ct. 881, 883, 11 L.Ed.2d 777 (1964). And see Jones v. United States, supra, note 2; Brinegar v. United States, supra; Patenotte v. United States, 266 F.2d 647, 650 (5th Cir. 1959); Kernick v. United States, 242 F.2d 818, 821 (8th Cir. 1957).
We would be naive were we to believe that no observation of Corngold's activities took place during this period of twenty months. But from the record, we only know that for at least six days prior to September 30, 1962, "a reliable informant," a "special employee" of the Bureau of Customs, had appellant's home under surveillance. On that day he parked his car, once during the morning and again at 1:00 P.M., near Corngold's residence; saw him leave in a Buick automobile at 3:00 P.M. and return at 4:00 or 4:30 P.M.; and thereafter saw him carry five heavy packages into his house. Within an hour a "scintillator" had been obtained from San Pedro, California (a distance of some twenty miles) and its positive result for radium activity noted from outside the appellant's apartment. This brings the time to between 5:00 and 6:00 P.M.
Frequently, a "special employee" is a euphemism for "stool pigeon." Here the informant, Mr. Mettler, was an undercover private investigator with a history of previous work for the Customs Bureau. He had worked on twelve different occasions in the previous five years. He first had reviewed the Bureau of Customs files on Melvin Corngold.
Between 6:30 P.M. and 7:30 P.M. on September 30, 1962, the appellant and two companions carried three heavy packages from the apartment building and placed them in the Buick automobile, which was driven to the Los Angeles International Airport. Five or six times on the ten mile trip from appellant's apartment to the airport, the scintillator disclosed positive findings of radium each time the government car passed the Buick. Two or three readings from a different scintillator in a different government auto also gave positive radium readings each time the appellant's Buick was passed.
Appellant lived at 3333 West Fourth Street, Los Angeles, California. We can take judicial notice of the fact that this address is some ten miles from the Los Angeles International Airport.
This court can take judicial notice of differences in time zones. T.W.A.'s flight #102 left Los Angeles on the night of September 30, 1962, presumably just before midnight. The Customs' men were working against the deadline of a scheduled departure. The three packages of "office equipment" shipped by appellant under an assumed name to New York were received by the air line at Los Angeles at 9:30 P.M., according to the notation on Exhibit 16. The testimony places the arrival at the airport at an earlier hour, 8:30-9:00 P.M. Shortly after the receipt in Los Angeles the appellant and his two companions left the T.W.A. freight headquarters, and the Customs agents followed, returning about a half hour later. It was only then that the Customs agents could safely and logically conclude by scintillator tests that the content of these three packages, rather than some other object being carried in the Buick automobile was the cause of the observed radium activity. This was "about" 10:00 P.M. (Tr. 363). Witness Devan then telephoned his supervisor to obtain permission to inspect the contents. We are not told how long this took, but the government agents had substantially less than two hours late on Sunday night to act with respect to the packages, and to determine what, could be done to finally ascertain if a violation of Customs law was occurring.
Three hours difference between New York and Los Angeles, not considering daylight savings problems.
It conceivably might have been the auto itself causing the activity had not the auto alone been checked that afternoon and found negative.
Compare this less than two hours available time with the more than two hours available time disclosed in Hernandez v. United States, 353 F.2d 624, where in 1965 a panel of this court, with respect to an earlier departure hour on a similar Sunday evening, held it was impractical to secure a warrant because the Customs inspectors said: "[A] warrant could not have been obtained until the following morning." Id. at 627.
To me, the Customs officers did the normal, common sense, rational and reasonable thing. They did not open the packages. They requested the carrier, who had custody and control of the packages, to open them for inspection.
With all the facts outlined herein in mind, I conclude: the search was justified as reasonable (1) because there was probable cause to believe an unlawful act — the receiving, and the facilitating of the transportation of merchandise known to have been smuggled into the United States — was taking place in the presence of the officers; (2) because of the right to search given by 19 U.S.C. § 482 to Customs agents; (3) because this was a lawful search made by a T.W.A. employee, and not by the Customs agents.
The majority opinion (in paragraph "1" of Part II) does not deny that there was probable cause to believe that the packages contained contraband. I agree. But even if this be so, say the majority " on this record, search without a warrant was not justified." (Emphasis added.) With this I cannot agree.
(b) Jones v. United States, supra, holds that probable cause for belief that certain articles subject to seizure are in a home cannot of itself justify a search without a warrant, citing Agnello v. United States, supra. In this case, the probable cause does not stand by itself. The majority opinion recognizes this qualification in stating: " On this record, search without a warrant was not justified even if the customs agents had probable cause to believe the packages contained contraband." On the record recited in the majority opinion and in this dissent, I maintain the search was justified without a warrant or an arrest.
Further, this being "a nighttime intrusion into a private home," (357 U.S. at 498, 78 S.Ct. at 1257; Rule 41(c), Fed.R. Crim.P.) the rule of "probable cause" for a daytime warrant falls before the "positive affidavits" requirements for a nighttime warrant. Hence probable cause alone is insufficient. 357 U.S. at 499, 78 S.Ct. at 1257. Jones, supra, does not in my opinion support the majority opinion.
Not only is the distinction between entry during daylight and nighttime expressed in court decisions and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, but the distinction between the sanctity of the home and the business establishment or other premises is recognized by congressional enactment. For example, see the right of entry granted to Customs officers as to all premises save "dwelling houses" in 19 U.S.C. § 1595(b).
"Customs officers have long been given express authority to `stop, search, and examine, as well without as within their respective districts, any vehicle * * * or persons, on which he or they shall suspect there is merchandise which is subject to duty, or shall have been introduced into the United States in any manner contrary to law.' [ 19 U.S.C. § 482; see: Act of March 3, 1815, 3 Stat. 231, 232; Act of July 18, 1866, 14 Stat. 178.] Indeed, Customs officers are authorized `at any time to go on board * * * any * * * vehicle at any place in the United States * * * and search * * * the vehicle and every part thereof * * * and to this end may hail and stop such vehicle, and use all necessary force to compel compliance.' [ 19 U.S.C. § 1581(a); see Act of July 31, 1789, 1 Stat. 29, 43.]
"Furthermore: `If upon the examination of any * * * vehicle it shall appear that a breach of the laws of the United States is being or has been committed so as to render such * * * vehicle, or the merchandise, or any part thereof, on board of, or brought into the United States by, such * * * vehicle, liable to forfeiture or to secure any fine or penalty, the same shall be seized and any person who has engaged in such breach shall be arrested.' [ 19 U.S.C. § 1581(e).]
"Validity for this distinction is found in the fact that primordial purpose of a search by Customs officers is not to apprehend persons, but to seize contraband property unlawfully imported or brought into the United States. [See The Atlantic, 68 F.2d 8 (2d Cir. 1933).] Accordingly, it is well settled that a search by Customs officials of a vehicle, at the time and place of entering the jurisdiction of the United States, need not be based on probable cause; that `unsupported' or `mere' suspicion alone is sufficient to justify such a search for purposes of Customs law enforcement. [Cervantes v. United States, 263 F.2d 800, 803, n. 5 (9th Cir. 1959); see: Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 154, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925); Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 623, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886); Hammond v. United States, 356 F.2d 931 (9th Cir. 1966); King v. United States, 348 F.2d 814, 817 (9th Cir. 1965); Jones v. United States, 326 F.2d 124, 130 (9th Cir. 1964, concurring opinion of Judge Duniway); Denton v. United States, 310 F.2d 129 (9th Cir. 1962); Mansfield v. United States, 308 F.2d 221 (5th Cir. 1962); Plazola v. United States, 291 F.2d 56 (9th Cir. 1961); Witt v. United States, 287 F.2d 389 (9th Cir. 1961); Murgia v. United States, 285 F.2d 14 (9th Cir. 1960); Landau v. United States Attorney, 82 F.2d 285 (2nd Cir. 1936); United States v. Wischerth, 68 F.2d 161 (2nd Cir. 1933); United States v. Yee Ngee How, 105 F. Supp. 517 (N.D.Calif. 1952).]
"Where, however, a search for contraband by Customs officers is not made at or in the immediate vicinity of the point of international border crossing, the legality of the search must be tested by a determination whether the totality of the surrounding circumstances, including the time and distance elapsed as well as the manner and extent of surveillance, are such as to convince the fact finder with reasonable certainty that any contraband which might be found in or on the vehicle at the time of search was aboard the vehicle at the time of entry into the jurisdiction of the United States. Any search by Customs officials which meets this test is properly called a `border search'. [See: Leeks v. United States, 356 F.2d 470 (9th Cir. 1966); King v. United States, supra, 348 F.2d 814; Marsh v. United States, 344 F.2d 317 (5th Cir. 1965); Jones v. United States, supra, 326 F.2d at 130 (concurring opinion of Judge Duniway); Mansfield v. United States, supra, 308 F.2d 221; Cervantes v. United States, supra, 263 F.2d at 803, n. 5; Ramirez v. United States, 263 F.2d 385 (5th Cir. 1959); Bolger v. United States, 189 F. Supp. 237 (S.D.N.Y. 1960), aff'd Bolger v. Cleary, 293 F.2d 368 (2nd Cir. 1961); United States v. Rodriguez, 195 F. Supp. 513 (S.D.Tex. 1960), aff'd 292 F.2d 709 (5th Cir. 1961); United States v. Yee Ngee How, supra, 105 F. Supp. 517; People v. Furey, 42 Misc.2d 579, 248 N.Y.S.2d 460 (1962).]" Alexander v. United States, 362 F.2d 379 (9th Cir. 1966).
I am aware that the last paragraph just quoted from Alexander v. United States, supra, states a factual condition for border searches which is not present in this case, i.e., "that any contraband which might be found in or on the vehicle at the time of search was aboard the vehicle at the time of entry into the jurisdiction of the United States." (Emphasis added.) I do not, however, believe that it is necessary that the goods seized must be aboard the same vehicle in which they entered the United States in order to make a search a "border search" within the meaning of 19 U.S.C. § 482. As the Alexander opinion had already noted (in the third paragraph from the opinion quoted above), the distinguishing characteristic of a search under 19 U.S.C. § 482 is the unusual standard of "reasonableness" applied to such searches because of the peculiar circumstances in which they are made, and that "Judicial recognition of this distinction has given rise to the term `border search', in order to distinguish official searches which are reasonable because made solely in the enforcement of Customs laws from other official searches made in connection with general law enforcement." It is very common for a judicial opinion to state a legal rule in the narrowest and most restricted form which will cover the circumstances present in the particular case, and I believe that such a custom was followed by the court in Alexander in setting forth as a condition for a "border search" that the contraband found be in the vehicle in which it entered the United States. In Alexander the contraband heroin was seized in a search of the car in which it had crossed the border, and the facts of the case thus fit the restricted form of the rule given in the opinion.
The view that the term "border searches" goes beyond searches of the vehicle in which the contraband was imported finds support in the very cases cited by the court in Alexander as authority for its definition. In Bolger v. United States, 189 F. Supp. 237 (S.D.N.Y. 1960), aff'd 293 F.2d 368 (2d Cir. 1961), for example, the court treated as a "border search" requiring neither warrant nor arrest a factual situation where a dock worker who was not entering the United States removed a carton from a pier containing goods which had already come to rest within the United States following importation. Mansfield v. United States, 308 F.2d 221 (5th Cir. 1962) and People v. Furey, 42 Misc.2d 579, 248 N.Y.S.2d 460 (1964), involved searches of persons, not vehicles, entering the United States at airports. United States v. Yee Ngee How, 105 F. Supp. 517 (N.D.Calif. 1952), involved the search of a person who was passing back and forth between a ship and shore after both the ship and the person had already passed Customs inspections. It does not seem logical to me that the transfer of contraband from one vehicle to another, after passing over a border into the United States, would defeat the provisions of the statute permitting Customs officers to "stop, search, and examine * * * any vehicle * * * on which or whom he or they shall suspect there is merchandise which is subject to duty, or shall have been introduced into the United States in any manner contrary to law, whether by the person in possession or charge, or by, in, or upon such vehicle or beast, or otherwise * * *." (Emphasis added.)
More importantly, I cannot by any means agree with the majority opinion's statement that "[w]e have treated the outer limits of authority delegated by the statute [ 19 U.S.C. § 482] as available only in border searches." (Emphasis added.) It is true that a difference exists in the application of 19 U.S.C. § 482 between searches made without warrant at or near a border and those made elsewhere, but the difference lies only in the requirement of probable cause. Numerous interpretations of the statute show that it is not limited to border searches. In searches made at a border without a warrant, no probable cause is necessary. Searches elsewhere under 19 U.S.C. § 482 may be made without a warrant, but probable cause for the search must be shown. That is the only difference between the applicability of the statute at a border and elsewhere. See, for example, Romero v. United States, 318 F.2d 530 (5th Cir. 1963); United States v. Zimmerman, 326 F.2d 1 (7th Cir. 1963). On the facts, see United States v. Blum, 329 F.2d 49 (2d Cir. 1964).
Thus, unless we say, as a matter of law, the packages searched are not, and cannot be, considered "trunks or envelopes," or, that this is not geographically a "border search," despite the statutory language "wherever found" and the cases cited in the above quotation, the majority opinion is, in my opinion, in error in failing to pass on the "precise meaning" of the statute, and in relying solely, and I submit, wrongly, on Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 623, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886).
Other courts have found such cardboard packages of smuggled watches to be "trunks or envelopes" within the statute. United States v. Epstein, 240 F. Supp. 84, 85-86 (S.D.N.Y. 1965).
I read the Boyd case to hold that a reversal was required because of the invalidity of a court order requiring Boyd to produce an invoice establishing the value of the plate glass seized by Customs officers, thus requiring the defendant in a criminal proceeding to testify against himself. The authority of the court order was the fifth section of the Act of June 22, 1874, and that section was found unconstitutional and void under Amendment V, and not under Amendment IV. The distinction between ordinary searches and Customs searches is emphasized in Boyd, supra, and in later cases. This difference was specifically relied upon by the Supreme Court in the later case of Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925). At pages 149-151, 45 S.Ct. at pages 283-284, the Court, pointing out the inapplicability of the Fourth Amendment for reasons it found sufficient, said:
See discussion of Boyd, supra, in One 1958 Plymouth Sedan v. Com. of Pennsylvania, 380 U.S. 693, 696, 85 S.Ct. 1246, 14 L.Ed.2d 170 (1965).
I fail to see anything illegal in the Customs officers asking the T.W.A. employee if he had authority to open the package; and if the T.W.A. employee did have such authority, in requesting him to do so. I think the Customs officers would have been negligent in their duties had they failed to ask the T.W.A. employee to perform an act he was contractually authorized to do.
T.W.A. had previously opened packages under the terms of its waybill. (R.T. pp. 323; 353.) In New York, the T.W.A. employees opened the packages under the assumed authority of the waybill.
"We find no merit in the claim of unreasonable search and seizure. R.E.A. had a right to open the carton and examine the contents, which were misdeclared on the waybill. The electronic devices had indicated that the contents were other than the declared cutlery, justifying inspection under the right reserved in R.E.A.'s Express Classification." 329 F.2d at 52.
In Blum, supra, the waybill was R.E.A.'s; here T.W.A's. There the misclassification was "cutlery;" here it was "office equipment." In both instances the contents were "Swiss watch movements without any importer's symbol." In both cases scintillator tests were positive.
The majority opinion states (and I believe incorrectly) that the Blum opinion "suggests" that the carrier itself opened the carton and examined the contents for its own purposes; i.e., "the purposes contemplated by its reservation of a right of inspection. 329 F.2d at 52."
In Romero v. United States, 318 F.2d 530 (5th Cir. 1963), a locked trunk, a locked suitcase, and two separate parcels were opened by the Customs agents (who found marijuana) after delivery to the Southern Pacific Railway for shipment as baggage. This was done on the strong odor of marijuana alone. No evidence of a recent border crossing existed. No warrant was obtained. There the train was not to leave for two and one-half hours. Probable cause was found for the search without a warrant, and, as well, authority under 19 U.S.C. § 482 to search and seize the contraband. The Supreme Court unanimously denied certiorari in this case. 375 U.S. 946, 84 S. Ct. 357, 11 L.Ed.2d 277 (1963). Cf. also: United States v. One 1937 Hudson Terraplane Coupe, 21 F. Supp. 600 (W.D. Ky. 1937), and United States v. Epstein, 240 F. Supp. 84 (S.D.N.Y. 1965), involving smuggled watches. The decision in the latter case rests upon the statutory authority given by 19 U.S.C. § 482 to Customs agents to open a package then in custody of an employee of Valiant Watch, Ltd. Based on what was discovered, the government obtained a search warrant. On the companion motion to suppress, an eminent judge — District Court Judge Weinfeld — held the same statute authorized the Customs agents to examine the packages and secure samples of the contraband watches therefrom "with or without the consent of the employee" of the corporation having possession thereof.
"They did not act upon mere suspicion, but on each occasion had abundant evidence upon which to ground a reasonable relief (sic) that the packages contained illegally imported watch movements. Defendants' contention that authority to search without a warrant is confined under the statute to customs borders and ports of entry, or situations involving hot pursuit, finds no support in the cases and files in the face of the plain statutory language permitting a search on reasonable cause of `any trunk or envelope, wherever found.' The defendants overlook the fact, of which the Court takes notice, that the searches in question occurred in New York City, the largest of our ports of entry. Moreover, assuming that petitioner interprets the statute correctly, the events and circumstances which led to the inspection survive any constitutional claim of unreasonable search. Since the packages were in transit, it was not feasible to obtain a search warrant; any purpose of inspection of the suspected contraband would have been frustrated by the time a warrant could have been obtained." 240 F. Supp. at 85-86.
Only an employee opening dead mail by authority of the Postmaster General, or a person holding a search warrant authorized by law may open any letter or parcel of the first class which is in the custody of the Department."
First class or "letter postage" mail is the only mail so protected from inspection under current regulations made pursuant to 39 U.S.C. § 501, for, as noted in Santana v. United States, supra, 329 F.2d at 856 "Postal Manual Regulation 311.11 provides: `Mail other than first class mail may be opened for postal inspection, except official mail weighing more than four pounds.'" The statute existing at the time of the Jackson opinion, supra, as noted in Oliver v. United States, supra, 239 F.2d at 822, specifically authorized the inspection of all "mail matter not charged with letter postage," and was contained in 39 U.S.C. § 251. In Santana, supra, the "air parcel post" package containing lottery tickets was held not to be first class postage, and hence the opening and examination of contents by the superintendent of mails was held by the district court not to be an illegal search and seizure, and this judgment was affirmed on appeal. In Oliver, supra, the heroin was mailed first class, and was held not subject to inspection.