Opinion ID: 2358021
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: the decision with respect to abandonment

Text: As we have indicated, intention is a prime factor in considering whether there has been an abandonment. Intent must be ascertained from what the actor said and did; intent, though subjective, is determined from the objective facts at hand. Hawley v. Commonwealth, supra, 144 S.E.2d at 317. The case sub judice, on the facts as presented to us, patently does not fall within that class of cases in which abandonment was found by the act of flight in hot pursuit. Nor does it fit into those cases in which the condition of the vehicle, its location and the length of time it remained there were determinative. Although the automobile was parked on private property without permission of the owner of the property, it was by the side of a public road which contained no curbs or sidewalks. The police were notified of its presence by the property owner immediately after it was parked and the two occupants had left, apparently in the direction of the nearby shopping mall. When appellants were arrested, they were walking back toward the automobile, only a short time after the car had been parked. There is nothing to indicate to this point, that appellants, later shown to have been the occupants of the automobile, intended to abandon it. The issue boils down to whether, in the circumstances, appellants' unequivocal disclaimer of the automobile satisfied the test for its abandonment by them. We think it did. We find United States v. Colbert, 474 F.2d 174 (5th Cir.1973), relied on by the Court of Special Appeals, Duncan v. State, supra, 34 Md. App. at 277-78, to be most persuasive. The Colbert court's recognition of the doctrine of abandonment in regard to the Fourth Amendment is the same as ours. It said: Abandonment is primarily a question of intent, and intent may be inferred from words spoken, acts done, and other objective facts.... All relevant circumstances existing at the time of the alleged abandonment should be considered.... Police pursuit or the existence of a police investigation does not of itself render abandonment involuntary. .. . The issue is not abandonment in the strict property-right sense, but whether the person prejudiced by the search had voluntarily discarded, left behind, or otherwise relinquished his interest in the property in question so that he could no longer retain a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to it at the time of the search. Colbert, supra, 474 F.2d at 176 (citations omitted). Not only was the law in Colbert the same as that in this jurisdiction, but it was applied to a factual situation which was comparable to that of the case in hand. Defendants Colbert and Reese were walking down the street carrying briefcases. A police officer noticed that Colbert fit the description of a wanted suspected felon, and he and another officer approached the men to question them. At the officer's approach the defendants set their briefcases on the sidewalk. They identified themselves as book salesmen but, when the officers asked to see their wares, i.e. the contents of the briefcases, [defendants] replied they did not have to show the officers anything and denied that they owned the briefcases or had any knowledge about them. The officers frisked Colbert and Reese. [Defendants] then began to walk away from the officers, leaving the briefcases on the sidewalk. The officers stopped them again and demanded of each to see some identification document. Reese produced a Georgia driver's license, and Colbert said he had no identification card with him. The officers then asked each [defendant] to produce his draft card; when each denied possessing one, the officers arrested them for failure to carry a Selective Service registration certificate, a violation of 50 U.S.C.A. App. § 462, and placed them in the patrol car. While in the parked car Reese again denied knowing anything about the briefcases. One of the officers then returned to the briefcases, opened them, and found the sawed-off shotguns inside. Id. at 175. Defendants were indicted for possession of the unregistered shotguns with illegal barrel lengths, and, after the trial court denied their motions to suppress, they were convicted. The court found that the facts showed conclusively that Colbert and Reese abandoned their briefcases before the searches took place. Their words and acts were in no way compelled by the police. Under the circumstances the defendants could entertain no reasonable expectation of privacy in the briefcases. Therefore, the search and seizure did not violate the Fourth Amendment and the evidence was admissible. Id. at 177. See United States v. Edwards, 441 F.2d 749, 753 (5th Cir.1971); Lurie v. Oberhauser, 431 F.2d 330, 333 (9th Cir.1970); Gugliotta v. State, 160 S.E.2d 266, 268 (Ga. Ct. App. 1968); State v. Brown, 341 N.E.2d 325, 326-327 (Ohio Ct. App. 1975). We find it plain that the words of Duncan and Smith showed conclusively that they abandoned any right they possessed to object to a search of the automobile. Clearly by what they said they surrendered any expectation of privacy therein. They do not now challenge the legality of their arrest or the voluntariness of their statements. They do note in their brief: The fact that the statements were made after the arrest is significant. Before arrest, the police are mere observers. After arrest, defendants can rightly consider the police as antagonists and act accordingly. Brief for appellants, note 4 at 9. We do not see the materiality of the significance in the circumstances. Surely police are not merely observers when they are pursuing a suspect or when they are engaged in an investigation, and neither police pursuit nor the existence of an active police investigation centering on a suspect renders abandonment involuntary. See United States v. Colbert, supra, 474 F.2d at 176; United States v. Edwards, supra, 441 F.2d at 751-752. By the same token we do not think that the arrests of themselves compelled appellants to disclaim any knowledge of the automobile nor did they render the disclaimers involuntary. See Abel v. United States, supra, 362 U.S. at 221-225 and 239-241. The abandonment of the automobile was no more compelled by the arrests of Duncan and Smith than it would have been compelled by a hot pursuit of them. As we have seen, abandonment under hot pursuit has been consistently upheld. Appellants assert: [T]he question of `abandonment' is a preliminary question involving standing, and suggest that we foreclosed the Court of Special Appeals from adjudicating any preliminary standing question when we remanded the case with the direction to examine the proceedings to determine whether the search and seizure was proper. Duncan and Smith v. State, supra, 276 Md. at 732-733. They claim that [t]here is no search and seizure when the police obtain possession of contraband after the defendant discards it, and they argue that our mandate did not permit consideration of whether there was a search and seizure but only whether the search and seizure was proper. Brief for appellants at 7-8. It does not follow from the standing of appellants to object to the search and seizure that they must prevail on the merits. They may question whether they abandoned the automobile, but the answer is not preordained by the automatic standing bestowed by Jones v. United States, supra . The Jones rule of standing was not intended to prevent the State from showing voluntary pre-search abandonment or to apply to a possession prosecution when such abandonment is shown. United States v. Colbert, supra, 474 F.2d at 177. Such abandonment by appellants was shown here and, therefore, the search and seizure was reasonable as to them. We hold that the trial judge did not err in denying the motions to suppress the challenged evidence and that the Court of Special Appeals properly sustained the judgments of the Circuit Court for Frederick County. Judgment affirmed; appellants to pay costs.