Opinion ID: 584150
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Entry into the Apartment Building

Text: 13 Defendants do not suggest that the arrest warrant was invalid. However, they do assert at the outset that the warrant did not authorize the entry into the apartment building to inquire about Santiago. Their argument is based upon the assertion that the hallway outside their apartment, in which they had an easement of access, was within their zone of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment. They say that the illegal entry into the hallway constitutes an alternative basis to support a decision suppressing the evidence, although such an argument was rejected by the district court. 14 The government does not argue that the entry into the hallway was justified by the arrest warrant. Rather, it maintains that under the established facts and law, the defendants' privacy rights did not extend to the hallway. Thus, it contends that the officers' entry into the hallway was constitutional. The first issue, therefore, is whether defendants' Fourth Amendment interests extended to the hallway, rendering the officers' entry illegal. 15 The district court held that the officers were entitled to enter the building. In reaching its conclusion, it explicitly adopted the reasoning of United States v. Holland, 755 F.2d 253 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1125, 105 S.Ct. 2657, 86 L.Ed.2d 274 (1985). The defendant in Holland resided in a second floor apartment in a two-story house. The inner hallway served both the first and second floor apartments. The defendant was arrested when, in response to the doorbell, he went down to the outer door and opened it. 16 The court in Holland held that the arrest, which took place while defendant stood in the open doorway, did not occur within the defendant's zone of privacy. It came to this conclusion for three reasons. First, it analyzed cases in which the Supreme Court considered invasions of privacy involving apartments and hotels. Although the actual rooms occupied by the defendants in those cases were accorded the same protected status as single family homes, the Court consistently spoke of entries, intrusions and invasions taking place at the doors of the living quarters. Holland, 755 F.2d at 255 (citing e.g., Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1958) (police invaded home when they broke the inner basement apartment door); Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948) (search began when officers entered the individual hotel rooms)). The Holland court also supported its common sense conclusion by reference to Congress' conception of a home in the National Prohibition Act, Publ. L. No. 66, 41 Stat. 305, 315 (1919), which prohibited warrantless searches in private dwellings. This Act defined dwellings to include the room or rooms used and occupied not transiently but solely as a residence in an apartment house, hotel, or boarding house. 17 Secondly, citing Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), the court concluded that only when the defendant has the right to keep a place private and subject to his exclusive control would reasonable expectations of privacy attach. Holland, 755 F.2d at 255. The defendant in Holland did not have the right to exclude others, nor did the record indicate that he had ever attempted to do so. Thirdly, the court noted that a rule designating commons areas as beyond individuals' zones of interest preserves police access to protect the tenants' actual homes. Id. at 256. 18 Holland continues to be an accurate statement of the law in the Second Circuit. See United States v. Barrios-Moriera, 872 F.2d 12 (2d Cir.) (officers' entry into common hallway of apartment building behind defendant-tenant who unlocked the door was constitutionally permissible), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 953, 110 S.Ct. 364, 107 L.Ed.2d 350 (1989), abrogated on other grounds, Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990); Reardon v. Wroan, 811 F.2d 1025, 1027 n. 2 (7th Cir.1987) (holding that persons in hallways of fraternity house, unlike apartment buildings, are constitutionally protected because of greater expectation of privacy). The majority of the circuits have adopted the Second Circuit's approach. 4 19 We find ourselves in agreement with the Second Circuit's analysis in Holland as applied to the facts here. It is undisputed that one of the officers turned the doorknob and found that the door was unlocked. Thus, the inner hallway was easily accessible to tenants, visitors, solicitors, workmen and other members of the public. On this record, defendants had no way to exclude anyone and, therefore, could not have reasonably expected their privacy to extend beyond their apartment door. See United States v. Breland, 715 F.Supp. 7, 10 (D.D.C.1989) (defendant's contention that he expected basement storage area to remain private was undermined by the fact that the room was not locked), aff'd, 918 F.2d 225 (D.C.Cir.1990). In addition, the officers did not resort to trickery, guile or force in order to enter the building. Indeed, they first rang the outer doorbells without receiving a response. 20 Our conclusion that there was no constitutional violation finds some support in this court's decision in United States v. Dickens, 695 F.2d 765 (3d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1092, 103 S.Ct. 1792, 76 L.Ed.2d 359 (1983). Dickens involved, among other things, the seizure of guns which police officers found in the stairwell of an apartment building where one of the defendants was temporarily staying. The defendant sought suppression of the evidence on the ground that the search in the stairway was illegal. The circumstances of the officers' presence in the apartment building, the physical layout and whether the building was secured by a locked door are not revealed in the opinion. We held, however, that [e]xpecting privacy in a building staircase accessible to other tenants and the general public cannot be considered reasonable. Id. at 778. 21 Because defendants had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the common area, the officers were entitled to open the unlocked outer door and go into the hallway without regard to their possession of an arrest warrant. Certainly this is so given their objective of attempting to locate Santiago's apartment. Thus, the entry into the building did not violate defendants' Fourth Amendment privacy rights and, therefore, did not taint the subsequent seizure of evidence.