Court Opinion

ID: 9533899
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:35:24.048419+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:12.630375
License: Public Domain

Gunderson, J.,
dissenting:
I agree with Mr. Justice Batjer’s observation that the majority’s legal position is “anomalous”; however, I cannot excuse anomalies in the district court’s actions, as does Justice Batjer, by invoking the words “harmless error.”
The majority say that “[t]o make reference to a document by its common designation is not a violation of the best evidence rule.” Perhaps not, but it does not follow that such a reference conclusively proves such a document exists which was regular on its face. Personally, I believe alluding to a document as a *38“warrant” constitutes no evidence whatever that the “warrant” was regular on its face; however, all must agree that such a reference is not irrebuttable evidence, so strong as to foreclose an attempt to show the “warrant” was in fact irregular.
Thus, assuming appellant’s Fourth Amendment rights were raised in timely fashion, the “warrant” manifestly was relevant to whether that document was regular on its face, and hence to whether respondent had the burden of attacking it. Furthermore, again assuming the Fourth Amendment issue was timely raised, and assuming further that the “warrant” was regular on its face and thus placed the burden of proof on appellant, the warrant and underlying affidavit still were competent evidence on the ultimate issue of legality. In short, whether appellant had the burden of proof seems unimportant here, for the court foreclosed appellant from demonstrating that the “warrant” was unlawfully issued, and thereby from discharging whatever burden appellant had.
As I see it, the sole issue is whether we properly may hold that appellant’s counsel have forfeited their client’s rights by failing to employ in this nonjury civil case a statute from our code of criminal procedure, which was primarily intended to avoid delays in the course of criminal jury trials. See: NRS 179.085. To me, such a Procrustean construction of NRS 179.-085 not only denies appellant procedural due process, but is totally unfair to appellant’s counsel, for in effect it brands them as derelict, when in fact they were nothing of the sort.
I perceive no language in NRS 179.085 to place appellant’s counsel on notice that they must seek a bifurcated trial on the search issue, by filing a motion to suppress. That statute does not apply to civil proceedings, either by its terms, by its policy, or by necessary implication.
NRS 179.085 is included in the Nevada Revised Statutes as part of Title 14, which is headed in bold, capital letters: “PROCEDURE IN CRIMINAL CASES.” It was enacted in 1967 as part of a lengthy Act summarized as: “AN ACT to regulate proceedings in criminal cases in this state; . . .” Nev. Stats. 1967, ch. 523; emphasis added. That Act provided, inter alia: “This Title may be known and cited as the Nevada Criminal Procedure Law.” Sec. 2; emphasis added. Said Act next declared: “This Title governs the procedure in the courts of the State of Nevada and before magistrates in all criminal proceedings, ...” Sec. 3; emphasis added. The Act provided further: “This Title is intended to provide for the just determination of every criminal proceeding. . . .” Sec. 4; emphasis added. Said Act is almost 100 pages in length, contains 468 *39sections, and countless sub-sections. So far as appears none, including the one the majority invoke here, have application to anything other than the processing of criminal accusations.
There is, of course, nothing to prevent us from declaring motions to suppress requisite in civil forfeiture proceedings, although in such cases the procedure seems nonutilitarian if not counterproductive. However, if we are to make motions to suppress part of Nevada’s civil procedure, let us do so prospectively so that, having notice of this requirement, litigants will enjoy procedural due process, and their lawyers will not be branded as negligent for failure to use criminal statutes imported into the civil law by this court on an ad hoc basis.