Court Opinion

ID: 9443588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:25:23.186819+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:32.685071
License: Public Domain

STEPHENS, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
I think the court ought not widen the ambit for appeals by the Government in criminal cases unless there is specific statutory authority for so doing. In my view there is no specific statutory authority for an appeal by the Government from an order of the District Court granting a motion to suppress evidence.
It is without dispute that the appeal cannot be taken under the Criminal Appeals Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3731 (1949), for the reason that the order granting the motion to suppress is not within the classes of decisions or judgments made appealable by the Government to the courts of appeals by that section; it is not a decision or judgment setting aside or dismissing an indictment or information and it is not a decision arresting a judgment of conviction.
I think the appeal cannot be taken under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1951) because the motion to suppress was made, and the order denying it was entered, after return of indictment. The proceeding initiated by the motion was therefore not an independent proceeding but one a part of the criminal proceeding itself; and the order was therefore not final, but interlocutory. Cogen v. United States, 278 U.S. 221, 49 S.Ct. 118, 73 L.Ed. 275 (1929); United States v. Rosenwasser, 145 F.2d 1015 (9th Cir. 1944). Cf. United States v. Bondy, 171 F.2d 642 (2nd Cir.1948). Section 1291 of Title 28 endows the courts of appeals with jurisdiction “of appeals from all final decisions of the district courts . . ..”1 think the proceeding to suppress, not independent when commenced, cannot 'be said to have thereafter been made independent by the Government’s dismissal of the criminal proceeding of which it was a part. In Go-Bart Co. v. United States, 282 U.S. 344, 51 S.Ct. 153, 75 L.Ed. 374 (1931), cited in the majority opinion, the application to suppress books and papers allegedly unlawfully seized was made and the order denying it was entered before return of indictment. The proceeding was therefore an independent one and the order denying the application was a final order and was therefore a decision appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 225(a), U.S.C.1940 ed., which parallels § 1291 of Title 28. Again, in Perlman v. United States, 247 U.S. 7, 38 S.Ct. 417, 62 L.Ed. 950 (1918), the petition to enjoin the United States attorney from taking into his possession, for use in a contemplated grand jury proceeding, exhibits of the peti*18tioner which had been impounded in’ a patent infringement case, was filed, and the order denying the petition was entered, before return of indictment. In United States v. Bianco, 189 F.2d 716 (3rd Cir. 1951), the petition to suppress and return seized lottery materials was filed — as a separate proceeding — and the order denying the petition was entered, before return of indictment. In Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 41 S.Ct. 574, 65 L.Ed. 1048 (1921), also cited in the majority opinion, no question was raised as to the' appeal-ability of the order for the return of books and papers and the Court made no ruling upon such a question. The decision is therefore no precedent.
I think the appeal cannot be taken under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (1951) because the order granting the motion to suppress is not within the classes of interlocutory orders of the district courts, or the judges thereof, made appealable to the courts of appeals by that section; it is not an order gr anting, continuing, modifying, refusing or dissolving an inj unction, or refusing to dissolve or modify an. injunction; it is riot an order appointing a receiver, or refusing an order to wind up a receivership or to take steps to accomplish the purposes thereof; it is not a decree determining the rights' and liabilities of the parties to an admiralty case in which appeals from final decrees are allowed; and it is not a judgment in a civil action for patent infringement which is final except for accounting.
Finally, I think the appeal is not warranted by Section 23-105 of the District of Columbia Code, 1951, providing that in criminal prosecutions the United States shall have “the same right of appeal that is given to the defendant.” A defendant has no right of appeal from an adverse decision on a motion to suppress made after return of indictment because such a decision is not final. Cogen v. United States, supra. Therefore in the instant case the Government has no right of appeal under Section 23-105 — since, as demonstrated above, the decision adverse to the Government on the motion to suppress was not final.
As was said in the Rosenwasser case, supra, 145 F.2d at page 1018, . . the courts have consistently guarded against an extension to the government of the right to appeal from an adverse ruling in a criminal case unless specific statutory sanction exists. United States v. Sanges, 1892, 144 U.S. 310, 12 S.Ct. 609, 36 L.Ed. 445 . . ..” There is in my view no statutory sanction ■for the- appeal sought to be taken in the instant case.