Court Opinion

ID: 9565119
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:15:17.286045+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:25.007811
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
dissenting.
Anderson and three others were fishing on the beach of Lake Jackson, a Turtle Cove development open to the public. Two employees of the Department of Natural Resources, Game and Fish Division, checking fishing licenses, entered the area. The defendant soon afterward picked up a margarine carton and placed it under a rock some 100 feet away. No illegal activity was observed. The unseen observer went to the rock while the defendant’s back was turned, opened the carton, found about one ounce of marijuana and a pipe, reclosed it, and then took the carton to the defendant, who had not gone more than 75 feet away, and asked if it belonged to him. The defendant replied that it did. The officer then placed him under arrest. No question involving a fishing license had *49arisen at this time.
An unreasonable search of a man’s person, his house, his papers or effects without warrant is unlawful because it is an invasion of his constitutionally protected right of privacy. Neither person, nor protected curtilage, nor papers is involved here. A public beach, like open fields, is not constitutionally protected. See Hester v. United States, 265 U. S. 57, where it was held that, after officers illegally entered a home, and defendants deposited drugs in a trash can outside the house, this evidence could not be used, it being "hidden” but not "abandoned,” on protected premises, but that property left in open fields would not be so protected. The same result was reached in Marullo v. United States, 328 F2d 361, 362, where the defendant confided the location of stolen goods to an informer. Acting on such information, officers went without warrant to a motel where the defendant had been staying, crawled under the cabin, which was resting on brick pillars, and retrieved stolen money order forms from one of them, and the court held: "Granted that a tenant has standing to protect the room he occupies, there is nevertheless an element of public or shared property in motel surroundings that is entirely lacking in the enjoyment of one’s home.” P. 363. The case followed Giacona v. United States, 257 F2d 450, where an agent, acting on information, found marijuana in cans in a paper bag hidden on foundation blocks supporting the building in which the defendant ran a grocery store. The search without warrant was upheld as reasonable because it did not extend to the inside of the store, and because it was only a foot or two "from the 'open fields’ which are not within the protection of the Fourth Amendment.” P. 456.
But we still have the question of whether the container constituted effects in the possession of the defendant. "The term 'seizure’ implies a taking or removal of something from the possession, actual or constructive, of another person.” (Emphasis supplied.) Molina v. State, 193 NW2d 874, 877. An excellent example of "abandonment” of constructive possession in the loose sense in which it is used in warrantless searches, is to be found in Keiningham v. United States, *50307 F2d 632. There the suspect alighted from a taxicab with a briefcase, recognized the officer, and left the property on the sidewalk several feet away from him. The officer, returning, engaged the suspect in conversation, eventually asked him whether the briefcase was his and, on being assured that it was not, opened it, found contraband, and arrested him. The court upheld the search and seizure on the ground of abandonment, based on the denial of ownership. Throwing material out of a moving car has also been held to be abandonment. Merrill v. State, 130 Ga. App. 745 (204 SE2d 632).
Had the defendant here denied ownership of the carton, or had he left the public premises without retrieving it, I would have no hesitancy in holding the warrantless search legal on the ground of abandonment. But the actions of both the defendant and the officers clearly show neither one was acting on this premise. Only a scant moment elapsed; the defendant did not travel more than 75 feet; on being asked about the carton he promptly claimed it as his own. The officer could not tell, without opening it, whether or not it contained contraband, and under these circumstances he had no more right to open it than he would have had to open the defendant’s wallet if the defendant had left it under the rock while he went for a swim.
Since the defendant did nothing to "abandon” the property (such as fleeing the area, as in United States v. Edwards, 441 F2d 749) or denying ownership, as in Keiningham, or leaving the articles in a semi-permanent hiding place, as in Giacona and Marullo) they were still in his constructive possession during the short interim between the deposit and the claim of ownership.
Accordingly, there was no abandonment, the defendant was in constructive possession of the box, and it was error to deny the motion to suppress.
The majority opinion is grounded on three premises: (1) that the defendant had been arrested for failure to have a fishing license; (2) that he had abandoned the closed margarine container, and (3) that the defendant might have "caught more than the lawful limit and hidden the catch,” thus giving the officer authority to search for contraband on a probable cause basis. I *51disagree with all three of these premises. (1) Arrest: The sequence of events is that while Peppin was checking other people on the beach, Harris retrieved the margarine container and asked the defendant if it was his, and the defendant replied that it was. Whether in fact any case was ever made against the defendant for failure to have a license is in doubt. Harris testified that he did not do so. Peppin said in part: "We did make some cases. I don’t remember now. I would have to check the record to see... ” although he believed Anderson was one of those against whom cases were made. But this happened at a later time.
(2) Abandonment: If I put my shirt, shoes, or wallet on a public beach and walk into the water, or walk 75 feet down the beach, I do not give the world leave to search my pockets or my purse. I may or may not have abandoned the article, true. But when, within the minute, Harris picked up the container and immediately inquired of the defendant whether it was his, and the defendant immediately answered that it was, there has obviously been no abandonment.
(3) Probable Cause: The majority opinion further urges that it was within the officer’s purview of duty to ascertain what was in the covered margarine container. ("Was it some unlawful lure or device for snaring fish? Had he caught more than the lawful limit”?) Whether or not the defendant had a fishing license (which at that time had not been ascertained) I do not believe he would have needed to secrete a fishing lure. So far as I know, fishing lures are not contraband and one does not need a license to own one. And as to the "unlawful catch,” any fish within that margarine container would have been so small that it boggles the imagination.
The officer opened the container, and then asked the owner if it belonged to him. This, under the circumstances, he had no right to do.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Pannell and Judges Clark and Stolz concur in this dissent.