Opinion ID: 2634741
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Apparent authority to consent

Text: ¶ 33 If a third party does not have common authority over the premises, consent may still be valid if the third party had apparent authority to consent. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. at 188, 110 S.Ct. 2793. Rodriguez established a two pronged test for determining whether a third party has apparent authority. A third party has apparent authority to consent if `the facts available to the officer at the moment ... warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief' that the consenting party had authority over the premises? Id. (emphasis added) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)) (internal quotation marks omitted). However, if the surrounding circumstances are such that a reasonable person would doubt that the consent was valid, police officers must conduct further inquiry. Id. ¶ 34 The majority is correct that this court has never explicitly applied the apparent authority test with reference to a consent to search question. Majority at 838. The Washington Court of Appeals and courts in other jurisdictions have applied the federal apparent authority test, however, and although those rulings are not binding on this court, they provide insight into the application of the test. ¶ 35 Division One of the Court of Appeals has held that a temporary guest does not have apparent authority to admit police officers to conduct a search or execute an arrest warrant. State v. Holmes, 108 Wash.App. 511, 519-20, 31 P.3d 716 (2001) (because the person who claimed to be a coinhabitant did not have a key, police officers should have doubted her authority to consent, despite her explicit assurance that she lived there); State v. Ryland, 65 Wash.App. 806, 829 P.2d 806 (1992) (a houseguest who had spent the previous night on the living room couch did not have apparent authority because the officer did not inquire into the extent of the guest's authority). ¶ 36 Other jurisdictions that have applied the apparent authority test have reached conflicting conclusions, however. Apparent authority has been found when the third party provided police officers with indicia of authorization prior to being admitted, or when the third party's relationship to the defendant suggested such authority. Flanagan v. State, 440 So.2d 13, 15 (Fla.Dist.Ct. App.1983) (third party who engaged in lengthy negotiations with police prior to allowing them to enter trailer had apparent authority); People v. Shaffer, 111 Ill.App.3d 1054, 1059, 444 N.E.2d 1096, 1099, 67 Ill.Dec. 612 (1982) (defendant's brother, although not an occupant of indefinite duration, was not merely a casual visitor); Nix v. State, 621 P.2d 1347, 1350 (Alaska 1981) (defendant's friend, who occasionally spent the night at the apartment, had apparent authority to admit defendant's sister accompanied by an undercover police officer). ¶ 37 Courts in other jurisdictions have concluded that a third party did not have apparent authority when the police made no inquiry about the third party's authority prior to entering. State v. Buhler, 137 Idaho 685, 52 P.3d 329, 332-33 (Ct.App.2002) (tenant's guest did not have apparent authority because police did not know how long he had been there, whether he had a key, or whether he had free access to the premises); People v. Pickens, 275 Ill.App.3d 108, 655 N.E.2d 1206, 1210, 211 Ill.Dec. 823 (1995) (officers could not accept at face value a consenting party's apparent assumption that he has authority; police should have inquired further into social guest's authority). In addition, one federal district court has held that a defendant's girl friend did not have apparent authority to permit a search of his apartment when the police failed to make further inquiry about the girl friend's claim that she was authorized. United States v. Gonzalez Athehorta, 729 F.Supp. 248, 258 (E.D.N.Y.1990). ¶ 38 In this case, nothing that Dangel did or said would give a reasonable person the belief that she had authority to consent to a search of the premises. Both parties agree that the police officers asked Dangel just two questions when she answered the door: if Ms. Wall was in the apartment, and if they could come in. Although the parties dispute whether Dangel actually told the officers they could enter, it is clear that the officers did not ask any questions that might elicit information about whether she was a resident of the apartment before they entered. ¶ 39 The record also shows that the officers knew from prior discussion with the apartment manager that Morse was the only person on the lease and the apartment manager thought Ms. Wall had departed because bounty hunters had been there several days earlier. In addition, it was not until after the officers had already entered the apartment that Dangel told the officers that she was staying at the apartment for about a week. Even then, the officers did not make any further inquiries to validate her authority over the premises. There was no indication that she had independent access to the apartment, received mail there, or shared expenses with Morse. Indeed, the only evidence in the record that even suggests Dangel had authority to let the police enter was a statement she made during the suppression hearing. However, that statement was made long after the event and has no bearing whatever on what the officers may have believed at the time. ¶ 40 Based on the above analysis, the officers were not justified in believing that Dangel had apparent authority to consent to a search of any part of Morse's apartment.