Opinion ID: 1817605
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Did defendant have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the area leading from the front door of his apartment building to his apartment door?

Text: We first must determine whether Breuer had a legitimate expectation of privacy with respect to the stairway of his apartment building. The State contends that Breuer did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the stairway leading to his apartment and thus deputy Dideriksen had the right to open the unlocked, outer screen door of the apartment building and proceed up the stairway to Breuer's apartment door without a warrant. [4] The determination of whether a person has a legitimate expectation of privacy with respect to a certain area is made on a case-by-case basis, considering the unique facts of each particular situation. State v. Edgeberg, 188 Wis.2d 339, 524 N.W.2d 911, 915 (Wis.Ct.App.1994). The correct test of legitimacy is not whether the individual has chosen to conceal some private activity but whether the government's intrusion infringes upon the personal and societal values protected by the Fourth Amendment. Flynn, 360 N.W.2d at 765 (quoting Oliver v. United States, 466 U.S. 170, 182-83, 104 S.Ct. 1735, 1741, 80 L.Ed.2d 214, 227 (1984)). Additionally, the expectation of privacy must be one that society considers reasonable. See Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516, 19 L.Ed.2d 576, 588 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). Whether expectations of privacy are reasonable involves `reference to concepts of real or personal property law or to understandings that are recognized and permitted by society.' Showalter, 427 N.W.2d at 170 (quoting Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143-44 n. 12, 99 S.Ct. 421, 430-31 n. 12, 58 L.Ed.2d 387, 401 n. 12 (1978)). In a case with facts similar to those involved here, the Supreme Court of Maine held that a defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the hallway of his single-dwelling house, and thus an officer's warrantless entry into the outer hallway of defendant's home constituted a trespass. See State v. Crider, 341 A.2d 1 (Me.1975). Although the court recognized that tenants in multi-unit apartment buildings do not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the common hallways of the apartment building, the court noted that the defendant in Crider lived in a single-family dwelling. Id. at 4. The court also recognized that although law enforcement officers may question people at their homes concerning criminal investigations, the court stated this right to call upon [people] at their homes for such purposes does not include the right to walk in uninvited merely because there is no response to a knock or a ring [at an outer door]. Id. Additionally, the court stated it [did] not appear that persistent knocking at the outer door would have gotten no response. Id. at 5. Cases from other jurisdictions have reached a similar conclusion. See United States v. Carriger, 541 F.2d 545, 550 (6th Cir.1976) (holding officers' actions in gaining entry to a defendant's locked apartment building by crawling through landlord's window, and then looking into defendant's apartment through the transom window constituted an illegal search); United States v. Fluker, 543 F.2d 709, 716-17 (9th Cir.1976) (holding defendant had reasonable expectation of privacy as to hallway separating apartment door from outer locked door of three-unit apartment building for purposes of federal statute requiring officers to give notice of authority and purpose before effecting a forced entry to execute a search warrant). After reviewing the record in light of the principles discussed above, we conclude that Breuer had a legitimate expectation of privacy with respect to the stairway of his apartment building. Breuer testified that visitors usually waited at the outer door after ringing the doorbell. This fact supports a finding that Breuer had a subjective expectation of privacy in the stairway. Additionally, the trial record shows that there were only two apartments in the building and that Breuer was the only tenant who used the hallway. Thus, the hallway was not an area used by other people coming and going in the building and therefore cannot be considered a common area. [5] Given these facts, we believe that society would recognize Breuer's expectation of privacy as reasonable. We conclude Breuer had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the area leading from the outer door of the apartment building to his apartment door. Dideriksen's actions thus constitute a search under the United States and Iowa constitutions.