Court Opinion

ID: 9746141
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:02:35.348584+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:37:40.671746
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, J.
I respectfully dissent.
The majority hold appellant waived his right to contest the legality of the officer’s warrantless entry into the apartment by failing to object to the trial court’s failure to consider the legality of the arrest when ruling on the motion. There are several flaws with the majority’s attempt to dispose of this case on that basis.
First, the issue of appellant’s possible waiver of a valid ground on which to grant the suppression motion was not raised in the parties’ briefs nor *412relied on by the People in this case. An appellate court may not decide a case based on an issue neither proposed nor briefed by any party without allowing them an opportunity for supplemental briefing. (Gov. Code, § 68081.) Because the parties were not given such opportunity in this case, the majority’s disposition of this appeal deprives the parties of their rights of notice and an opportunity to be heard.
Second, the People did not suggest the trial court’s error was waived on appeal because they apparently recognized no further objection was required of appellant. In their brief on appeal the People acknowledge the legality of the arrest was put in issue in appellant’s motion to suppress. Appellant’s notice of motion to suppress evidence under Penal Code section 1538.5 stated he was objecting to all evidence “seized without the use of a search warrant and as a result of an illegal entry into the defendant’s home.” (Italics added.) The notice stated the suppression motion would be based upon “such evidence as may be introduced at the hearing on said motion and upon these points and authorities.” The memorandum of points and authorities accompanying the notice of motion concluded with a request the trial court “suppress the chrome revolver, and all evidence flowing from the illegal arrest." (Italics added.)
Penal Code section 1538.5 subdivision (m) provides “review on appeal may be obtained by the defendant providing that at some stage of the proceedings prior to conviction he or she has moved for the return of property or the suppression of evidence.” Appellant in this case moved to suppress evidence “flowing from the illegal arrest” and therefore preserved for appeal the issue whether the evidence should have been suppressed as fruit of the warrantless arrest. (Wong Sun v. United States (1963) 371 U.S. 471 [9 L.Ed.2d 441, 83 S.Ct. 407].) It is only when the ground for granting a suppression motion is raised for the first time on appeal that a court will deem the issue waived. (Cf. People v. Superior Court (Wells) (1980) 27 Cal.3d 670, 673 [165 Cal.Rptr. 872, 612 P.2d 962]; Lorenzana v. Superior Court (1973) 9 Cal.3d 626, 640 [108 Cal.Rptr. 585, 511 P.2d 33] with People v. Coleman (1972) 28 Cal.App.3d 36, 43, fn. 6 [104 Cal.Rptr. 363] [issue not raised in motion but briefly argued at close of evidence preserved issue for review].) The majority cite no authority for the proposition a defendant seeking to suppress evidence must both assert a valid ground in the trial court as well as object when the trial court fails to recognize that ground as meritorious in order to preserve the issue on appeal.
Third, argument at the suppression hearing was focused generally on appellant’s reasonable expectations of privacy which were not specifically limited to the alleged illegal search. Defense counsel presented evidence on *413two distinct grounds in an effort to establish appellant had standing in this case: appellant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area immediately surrounding his person and he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the apartment by virtue of his status as an overnight guest. On the basis of the United States Supreme Court decision in Minnesota v. Olson (1990) 495 U.S. 91 [109 L.Ed.2d 85, 110 S.Ct. 1684], appellant’s status as an overnight guest was sufficient as a matter of law to establish he had a reasonable expectation of privacy, not only in the area of his immediate person, or in the furniture upon which his body rested, but in “his host’s home.”1 (495 U.S. at p. 98 [109 L.Ed.2d at p. 94].) The analysis in Olson, establishing a virtual per se rule of standing for overnight guests, is broad enough to include any challenged police activity in a host’s home during a period in which a defendant enjoys that status. (See 4 LaFave, Search & Seizure (2d ed. 1987) (1992 supp.) ch. 11, § 11.3, pp. 55-56.) In other words, there is nothing in the Court’s analysis which would limit reasonable expectations of privacy for overnight guests to only be free from warrantless arrests while in their host’s home, and not unlawful searches.
The majority concede evidence presented at the suppression hearing established appellant was an overnight guest in the apartment in which the allegedly unlawful search and seizure occurred. The majority further acknowledge that under the Supreme Court’s decision in Minnesota v. Olson, supra, 495 U.S. 91, appellant’s status as an overnight guest conferred standing on him as a matter of law to challenge his warrantless arrest. *414Nevertheless, the majority suggest appellant’s motion to suppress was limited to the legality of the alleged search of his host’s home. Based on that view of the record and the Supreme Court’s decision in Rakas v. Illinois (1978) 439 U.S. 128 [58 L.Ed.2d 387, 99 S.Ct. 421], the majority conclude appellant had no interest in the gun he claimed was not his and found in a home in which he was merely a guest. The majority’s reliance on Rakas v. Illinois, supra, 439 U.S. 128, however, is misplaced. In that case passengers in a lawfully stopped car who claimed no proprietary or possessory interest in either the car or the contraband had no legitimate expectation of privacy in the glove compartment or area under the seat where the police discovered the items. (439 U.S. at p. 148 [58 L.Ed.2d at p. 404].) In this case by contrast, appellant asserted an interest in his host’s home by establishing he was an overnight guest. Consequently, the rationale of Rakas is inapplicable in this context.
On the basis of the evidence presented at the hearing, the motion and notice of motion to suppress evidence on the basis of the unlawful arrest, I would hold appellant asserted the illegal arrest as a ground for challenging admission of the evidence seized as a result of the warrantless arrest. Further, based on the evidence establishing appellant’s status as an overnight guest and the virtual per se rule of standing for overnight guests announced in Minnesota v. Olson, supra, 495 U.S. 91, I would conclude appellant had standing to challenge the admissibility of the evidence seized during the warrantless arrest in his host’s home. Consequently, the trial court erred in not giving appellant a full hearing on the probable cause and other issues involved in that arrest and seizure.
A petition for a rehearing was denied August 10, 1993, and appellant’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied November 18, 1993. Mosk, J., Kennard, J., and Baxter, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

In Minnesota v. Olson, supra, 495 U.S. 91, police suspected Olson of being the driver of the getaway car used in a robbery-murder. Police surrounded the home of two women with whom police believed Olson spent the night to avoid detection. Without seeking permission and with weapons drawn, police entered the home, found Olson hiding in a closet, and arrested him. Shortly thereafter, he made an inculpatory statement, which the trial court refused to suppress. Olson was convicted of murder, armed robbery and assault. The Minnesota Supreme Court reversed, ruling Olson had a sufficient interest in the women’s home to challenge the legality of his warrantless arrest, that the arrest was illegal because there were no exigent circumstances to justify the warrantless entry and that his statement was tainted and should have been suppressed.
The United States Supreme Court affirmed, holding “Olson’s status as an overnight guest is alone enough to show that he had an expectation of privacy in the home that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.” (495 U.S. atpp. 96-97 [109 L.Ed.2d atpp. 92-94].) The court reasoned “[t]o hold that an overnight guest has a legitimate expectation of privacy in his host’s home merely recognizes the everyday expectations of privacy that we all share. Staying overnight in another’s home is a longstanding social custom that serves functions recognized as valuable by society. . . . [f] From the overnight guest’s perspective, he seeks shelter in another’s home precisely because it provides him with privacy, a place where he and his possessions will not be disturbed by anyone but his host and those his host allows inside.” (495 U.S. at pp. 98-99 [109 L.Ed.2d at pp. 94-95].)
The court’s expansive view of a houseguest’s reasonable expectations of privacy in his host’s home appears broad enough to confer standing to challenge police activity beyond warrantless arrests.