Opinion ID: 762610
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The July 7, 1997, Inventory Search

Text: 20 The government argues that the district court erred on the merits by suppressing the results of the July 7 search of Dhinsa's car because it was a lawful inventory search. The government also urges that we summarily reverse the suppression order without regard to its merits because the district court made a ruling inconsistent with its findings for the sole purpose of creating a right of appellate review that would not otherwise exist. 21 Had the district court, consistent with its findings, denied Dhinsa's request for suppression of the fruits of the July 7 search, Dhinsa would have had no right to take an immediate cross-appeal. See United States v. Margiotta, 646 F.2d 729, 734 (2d Cir.1981) (citing 18 U.S.C. § 3731). However, Dhinsa will be able to appeal the adverse suppression ruling if it is relevant to any appeal he may take from his conviction. The government argues that we should summarily reverse the district court and thereby place Dhinsa in the same position that he would have been if the district court issued a ruling based on its findings. 22 In making this argument, the government principally relies on United States v. Hundley, 858 F.2d 58 (2d Cir.1988). In Hundley, we addressed and dismissed the government's appeal from a district court order granting a motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. See id. at 59. During plea and sentencing proceedings, the government requested that the district court enhance Hundley's sentence because he had three prior predicate convictions. See id. at 59-60. The district judge determined prior to Hundley's entry of a plea that one of his prior convictions was constitutionally infirm but declined to make the ruling at that point because he did not want to deny the Government its right to appeal. See id. at 60 (internal quotation marks omitted). Instead, the judge proposed to accept Hundley's guilty plea, impose a sentence that included an enhancement for the three prior convictions, and immediately entertain and grant a Section 2255 motion to reduce the sentence based on the invalidity of the prior conviction. See id. After protesting this procedure, Hundley pleaded guilty. See id. The district judge then sentenced Hundley with the enhancement and immediately granted Hundley's oral motion to reduce the sentence. See id. Had the district court initially declined to enhance Hundley's sentence based on the prior conviction, the government could not have appealed. See id. at 61. Therefore, we dismissed the government's appeal, holding that if the Government could not have appealed directly from a sentence originally imposed without enhancement, it cannot acquire such a right by the contrivance of a staged plea and sentence ... followed by a pre-determined collateral attack. Id. (emphasis removed). We characterized the Section 2255 motion as a collusive suit, arranged between the sentencing judge and the Government over the defendant's objection. Id. 23 A different scenario confronts us here. We have jurisdiction over this appeal because the district court manipulated not the procedure but the outcome. The district court did not create a right of appeal that the government otherwise would not possess because the government can appeal a pretrial suppression order. See 18 U.S.C. § 3731. In fact, if we lacked jurisdiction we would have to dismiss the appeal and leave intact the district court's ruling even though the ruling was inconsistent with the court's findings of fact and law. This result clearly would violate the government's right to appeal an adverse suppression ruling. We therefore distinguish this case from the collusive arrangement present in Hundley. 24 Moreover, we can affirm the district court's order upon any ground that the record demonstrates without limitation to the grounds on which the district court relied. See Margiotta, 646 F.2d at 734. Dhinsa suggests that we affirm the district court's order because Verma intended to conduct an investigatory search, the search he conducted did not follow departmental procedures, and the search went beyond the bounds of a proper inventory search. 25 We decline Dhinsa's invitation. Notwithstanding our jurisdiction to entertain the government's appeal, considerations of prudence and respect for the appellate scheme that Congress authorized suggest that we summarily reverse the suppression order and leave for another day the merits of Dhinsa's claims. First, none of the factors that the district court identified--the anticipated length and complexity of Dhinsa's capital trial, the perceived closeness of the issue, and the government's decision to file an interlocutory appeal on the July 1 car search--justified the district court's decision to enter an order inconsistent with his findings. Quite simply, litigants have a right to expect that courts will make their rulings based on their findings, not despite them. Second, allowing Dhinsa to question the district court's findings in an interlocutory appeal would undermine a carefully designed statutory scheme. Under certain circumstances, the government has the right to appeal from a suppression order, but Congress has not seen fit to give defendants a corollary right to appeal from the denial of a suppression order. See 18 U.S.C. § 3731. However, Dhinsa can appeal his conviction, and he can challenge the district court's ruling at that time. On the other hand, the government will have no right to appeal Dhinsa's acquittal on certain counts, see United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 91, 98 S.Ct. 2187, 57 L.Ed.2d 65 (1978), and thus only can challenge the suppression ruling in an interlocutory appeal. This appellate scheme protects the defendant against violation of his rights under the Double Jeopardy Clause, see id., and guarantees him a right of appeal from a final judgment while allowing the government to obtain interlocutory review of suppression orders, see 18 U.S.C. § 3731. We best serve Congressional intent and the strong policy against interlocutory appeals in criminal cases, see Flanagan v. United States, 465 U.S. 259, 264, 104 S.Ct. 1051, 79 L.Ed.2d 288 (1984), by summarily reversing the district court's order because it directly contradicts its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The government concedes, and we agree, that Dhinsa may raise the admission of the fruits of the July 7 search in a post-trial appeal.