Court Opinion

ID: 9633942
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:08:20.049338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:04.013086
License: Public Domain

Revelle, J.*
(concurring) — I agree with the result reached by the majority but believe we should make clear the history involved.
The case arises upon a petition for rehearing granted subsequent to publication of State v. Byers, 85 Wn.2d 783, 539 P.2d 833 (1975), review granted, 84 Wn.2d 1014 (1974). The trial court found that the arrest was not based upon probable cause and was, therefore, illegal. Pursuant to this ruling, physical evidence gained incident to the arrest was excluded by the trial court. The defendants' confessions were admitted, however, presumably because they were voluntary. Based solely on the defendants' confessions, the trial court found the defendants guilty. In an unpublished opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court. Defendants appealed to this court but neither party assigned as error the finding of the trial court that the arrest was illegal. We granted review. Based, at least in part, on a necessarily sua sponté de novo review of the evidence, we found the trial court in error on the issue of arrest, and held that the defendants were not arrested but were legally detained under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 13, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 88 S. Ct. 1868 (1968). Because the stop was lawful, and there were no other defects apparent in the record, the defendants' confessions were not the fruits of an unlawful arrest and were, therefore, held admissible, State v. Byers, 85 Wn.2d 783, 539 P.2d 833 (1975). Defendants *11petitioned this court for rehearing, questioning the authority of this court to pursue independent review of constitutional issues where they had not been assigned as error or argued and where the defendants' constitutional rights had not been derogated. This court granted the petition for rehearing and today affirms the trial court's finding regarding the arrest and its illegality but reverses the convictions for reasons stated in the majority opinion.
I believe we should display the method and state our reasons for affirming the trial court's finding regarding the illegality of the arrest. These reasons appear to me to be as follows:
1. Where the facts are undisputed, a determination of the presence or absence of probable cause to stop or to arrest becomes a question of law, the judicial determination of which becomes a conclusion of law reviewable on appeal. State v. Byers, 85 Wn.2d 783, 539 P.2d 833, citing Eberhart v. Murphy, 113 Wash. 449, 194 P. 415 (1920).
2. Where findings of fact and conclusions of law are supported by substantial but disputed evidence, an appellate court will not disturb the trial court's ruling. State v. Smith, 84 Wn.2d 498, 527 P.2d 674 (1974); State v. Chapman, 84 Wn.2d 373, 526 P.2d 64 (1974). See also House v. Erwin, 83 Wn.2d 898, 524 P.2d 911 (1974); Boise Cascade Corp. v. Pierce County, 84 Wn.2d 667, 529 P.2d 9 (1974).
3. An appellate court will, however, undertake a de novo review of the evidence where constitutional issues are involved. McNear v. Rhay, 65 Wn.2d 530, 398 P.2d 732 (1965).
4. Yet, where (a) an appellate court determines that the trial court has based its ruling upon undisputed or disputed substantial evidence, (b) the ruling is not assigned as error on appeal, and (c) the ruling does not derogate the constitutional rights of the defendant but rather inures to the defendant's benefit, the appellate court will not disturb the trial court's ruling.
*12In explanation of point four above, I can find no authority, federal or state, for an appellate court's sua sponte review of constitutional issues where the rights of the accused are not at stake or where the defendant has not assigned as error the constitutional rulings. Indeed, the cases seem to take the opposite approach. I quote from Justice Utter's dissenting opinion in State v. Byers, 85 Wn.2d 783, 792, 539 P.2d 833 (1975):
The majority's statement that the facts here should be reviewed de novo because constitutional rights are at stake turns the rule of Haynes v. Washington, 373 U.S. 503, 10 L. Ed. 2d 513, 83 S. Ct. 1336 (1963) on its head. Appellate courts' careful scrutiny of the record in constitutional cases is necessary to insure "that constitutional privileges have not been abused" (State v. Hoffman, 64 Wn.2d 445, 451, 392 P.2d 237 (1964)), not to guard against the unwarranted protection of them.
From these propositions and the history before me, I conclude this court's authority to open the record for de novo review was properly questioned by appellants upon rehearing of this case and we have arrived at the correct result. I concurred with the majority result in the first hearing (the dissent here) because I then considered we had the authority to hold there was no arrest.
The second point I wish to make here is concerned with the majority's substantive analysis. I now agree with the majority's analysis regarding the inadmissibility of the physical evidence and the confessions as they were the fruits of an arrest not based on probable cause, therefore illegal and not purged of their original taint through time or intervening circumstances. I also agree that the volun-tariness of a confession is a Fifth Amendment issue totally irrelevant to a determination of Fourth Amendment rights as held in Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441, 83 S. Ct. 407 (1963). Given, however, that we have reversed the trial court's ruling on the admission of the confessions by recognizing this viewpoint I believe we should assert that to the extent Wong Sun v. United States, supra, is inconsistent with the earlier decisions in *13this jurisdiction, namely, State v. Carpenter, 63 Wn.2d 577, 388 P.2d 537 (1964), and State v. Keating, 61 Wn.2d 452, 378 P.2d 703 (1963), these decisions are no longer correct statements of the law.

Judge George H. Revelle is serving as a judge pro tempore of the Supreme Court pursuant to Const, art. 4, § 2A (amendment 38).