Opinion ID: 1262377
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Search of the Attorney's Office

Text: We now address the suppression of the files and manila envelope seized from the law offices of Wollrab and Younghans in the course of the search pursuant to warrant on May 15, 1981. The court suppressed these items because, in its view, the description of the items to be seized, namely the financial and bookkeeping records or ledgers, does not warrant the seizure of client files, which clearly these were, as indicated by the testimony of the [searching] officer. We agree with the district court that the items seized were beyond the scope of the warrant.
As a preliminary matter the district attorney asserts that the defendants lack standing to contest the search of the attorney's office or, in the alternative, they are barred from contesting the search under principles of res judicata and collateral estoppel. We find no merit to these claims. The district attorney concedes that these arguments were not raised in the district court. In fact, the district attorney acquiesced in the entry of appearances of counsel for Iden, Hearty and Amezquita at the hearing on Younghans' motion to quash the grand jury subpoena and to return evidence seized from her office. Furthermore, although the district attorney at the suppression hearing before Judge Neighbors initially objected to the defendants' standing to contest the search of Younghans' office, he later withdrew any objection on that basis. Under these circumstances, any objection to the defendants' standing to challenge the search of Younghans' office has been waived. See Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981) (government loses its right to raise a defendant's lack of standing to challenge a search when it acquiesces in contrary findings or fails to raise the issue in a timely fashion during litigation). We see no basis in this case for the application of either res judicata or collateral estoppel. Res judicata is a claim preclusion and renders an existing judgment conclusive as to the rights of the parties or their privies in any subsequent proceeding based on the same cause of action. See, e.g., Metropolitan Gas Repair Service, Inc. v. Kulik, Colo., 621 P.2d 313 (1980); Pomeroy v. Waitkus, 183 Colo., 344, 517 P.2d 396 (1973). Collateral estoppel, which is a form of issue preclusion attaching to a subsequent adjudicatory proceeding, requires an identity of issue, an identity or privity between those parties against whom the doctrine is asserted, and a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in the prior proceeding. Metropolitan Gas Repair Service, Inc. v. Kulik, supra ; Pomeroy v. Waitkus, supra ; Mangus v. Western Casualty and Surety Co., 41 Colo.App. 217, 585 P.2d 304 (1978). Both doctrines require the prior entry of a final judgment. The denial of a motion to quash a subpoena is interlocutory in character and is not a final judgment. See, e.g., Dibella v. United States, 369 U.S. 121, 82 S.Ct. 654, 7 L.Ed.2d 614 (1962); D. H. v. People, 192 Colo. 542, 561 P.2d 5 (1977); Gonzales v. District Court, 164 Colo. 433, 435 P.2d 384 (1967). Moreover, res judicata requires an identity of parties and collateral estoppel requires an identity of issues. Here, there is neither an identity of parties nor of issues. The hearing conducted by Judge Scott was directed to Younghans' motion to quash on the basis that the disclosure of the subpoenaed evidence would violate the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. The later hearing by Judge Neighbors on the defendants' motion to suppress did not involve any claim of lawyer Younghans and raised issues separate and apart from the attorney-client privilege. Thus, neither res judicata nor collateral estoppel has any application here.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires that a search warrant particularly describe the objects to be seized. Article II, Section 7 of the Colorado Constitution provides that no search warrant shall issue without describing the things to be seized as near as may be. The particularity requirement serves multiple purposes. It prevents a general search, the dreaded practice authorized by the colonial writ of assistance. Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 195, 48 S.Ct. 74, 75, 72 L.Ed. 231, 236 (1927). It also curtails the issuance of search warrants on loose and vaguely stated bases in fact. Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, 282 U.S. 344, 51 S.Ct. 153, 75 L.Ed. 374 (1931). In addition, it prevents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing another. Marron v. United States, supra, 275 U.S. at 196, 48 S.Ct. at 76, 72 L.Ed. at 237. This court pointed out the importance of the particularity requirement to this last stated purpose in People v. Schmidt, 172 Colo. 285, 473 P.2d 698 (1970). We there noted that particularity should be given an interpretation commensurate with the type of property sought to be seized so that the officer charged with the duty of executing the warrant will be advised with a reasonable degree of certainty of the property to be seized. 172 Colo. at 290, 473 P.2d at 700. Although the degree of specificity required in a search warrant often will vary with the level of information available to the police and the type of items to be seized, we must be cognizant that a warrant authorizing a search for a person's papers poses significant risks to privacy. In such searches some documentary examination is usually necessary to determine whether a particular document is among the papers authorized to be seized. Consequently, it is incumbent that responsible officials, including judicial officials ... take care to assure that [such searches] are conducted in a manner that minimizes unwarranted intrusions upon privacy. Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 482, n. 11, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 2749, n. 11, 49 L.Ed.2d 627, 643, n. 11 (1976). We believe that rigid adherence to the particularity requirement is appropriate where a lawyer's office is searched for designated documents. Anything less than a strict limitation of the search and seizure to those documents particularly described in the warrant could result in a wholesale incursion into privileged communications of a highly sensitive nature. Once the privileged communication is revealed to the police, the privilege for all practical purposes has been lost. In this case the issuing judge narrowly framed the warrant so as to authorize the search for and seizure of a rubber stamp and bookkeeping and financial records pertaining to Iden, Hearty, Amezquita, and the Colorado Gem Exchange. Although not expressly stated in the warrant, the warrant's authorization to search for financial and/or bookkeeping records and/or ledgers pertaining to Iden, Hearty, Amezquita and the Colorado Gem Exchange contemplated some limited examination of files within the lawyer's office in order to locate the particular records described in the warrant. Clearly, however, the warrant did not authorize the seizure of the entire client file pertaining to these suspects solely on the basis of the name appearing on the outside of the file and with no indication that the sought material was located within the file. That such a blanket seizure was not authorized by the warrant is obvious from the face of the warrant itself which stated: The execution of this Warrant is not to violate any attorney-client privilege as such may exist regarding any property not described above. Detective Hayes virtually conceded at the suppression hearing that he knew the files seized from Younghans' office were client files and that they were seized on that basis alone. [11] Detective Hayes also admitted that he made no examination whatever to determine whether the files might have contained the financial or bookkeeping records described in the warrant. [12] In the case of the manila envelope there likewise was no indication that it contained the financial or bookkeeping records sought in the search. [13] In fact, the cursory examination of the contents of the envelope disclosed to Detective Hayes that it likely contained information relating to Craig Skinner and as such clearly was outside the scope of the warrant. Furthermore, the seizure of the manila envelope and its contents cannot be justified under the plain view doctrine. That doctrine requires, inter alia, a showing that Detective Hayes, at the time of the seizure, had present knowledge of facts establishing a reasonable nexus between the documents seized and criminal behavior. See People v. Franklin, Colo., 640 P.2d 226 (1982). The prosecution's evidence at the suppression hearing failed to establish this requisite showing. Detective Hayes testified that upon opening the manila folder he merely observed smaller envelopes with colored dots on them, a piece of paper with the name of Craig Skinner on it, and a report which, although ostensibly relating to some burglary investigation, was not further identified or connected in any manner with either the extortion case under investigation or any other known criminal behavior. Considering the suppression testimony of Detective Hayes as well as the terms of the warrant itself, which described the property to be seized as financial and/or bookkeeping records and/or ledgers pertaining to the defendants and expressly warned the officers against violating the attorney-client privilege in the execution of the warrant, we cannot say that the district court erred in suppressing the client files and manila envelope as outside the scope of the warrant. On the contrary, under the particular circumstances of this case, we are satisfied that the seizure of this evidence constituted an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article II, Section 7 of the Colorado Constitution. We affirm that part of the ruling suppressing the clients' files and manila envelope seized from Younghans' law office and we reverse that part of the ruling suppressing the objects seized from the Iden residence.