Court Opinion

ID: 9457416
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:21:18.068236+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:20.531311
License: Public Domain

JAMES M. CARTER, Circuit Judge
(concurring and dissenting).
I concur in all of the majority opinion except that portion refusing to meet the issue of the liability of defendants’ agents, acting as agents of the police. The opinion states:
“(3) Were the defendant’s employees acting as special agents of the police and, if so, did their acts violate the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the Federal Constitution, thereby subjecting defendant to liability under the Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 1983)? Because we hold that plaintiff proved a cause of action under California law and that the First Amendment does not insulate the defendant from liability, we do not reach the third issue.”
The complaint stated a cause of action under claim of diversity jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1332. No contention was made that a cause of action was stated under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. I agree we should not reach any issue under the Civil Rights Act, but think we should reach and decide the issue as to Time’s liability for the acts of its employees, as agents of the police, in view of Time’s reliance on Fourth Amendment cases.
The district court found that an ' agreement had been entered into between Life magazine, owned by Time, Inc., and the District Attorney’s office in Los Angeles, for Life’s agents to acquire information which would be used against Dietemann in a criminal prosecution and published by Life. Diete-mann v. Time, Inc., 284 F.Supp. 925, 927. It thus appears that the agreement constituted Life and its employees agents of the police. Time in its appellate briefs, disclaimed any contention that its employees were acting for or on behalf of the police and for this reason the majority refused to reach the issue of the liability of Time for the acts of its employees, as agents for the police.
This issue was briefed extensively below, and but for the disclaimer, is still in the case. Time cited the criminal cases involving the Fourth Amendment, referred to infra.
These were cases arising in the United States courts, involving the surreptitious monitoring or recording of conversations and activities of defendants by police and police agents, in which the Supreme Court considered contentions that the conduct violated the Fourth Amendment. On Lee v. United States, 343 U.S. 747, 72 S.Ct. 967, 96 L.Ed.1270 (1952); Lopez v. United States, 373 U. S. 427, 83 S.Ct. 1381, 10 L.Ed.2d 462 *251(1963); Lewis v. United States, 385 U. S. 206, 87 S.Ct. 424, 17 L.Ed.2d 312 (1966); Hoffa v. United States, 385 U. S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 408, 17 L.Ed.2d 374 (1966); Osborn v. United States, 385 U.S. 323, 87 S.Ct. 429, 17 L.Ed.2d 394 (1966); Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) and United States v. White, 401 U.S. 745, 91 S.Ct. 1122, 28 L.Ed.2d 453 (1971). The Supreme Court held that in the situations involved in the cases, there was no violation of the Fourth Amendment, except in Katz. White sustained the continuing validity of On Lee, Lopez, Lewis and Hoffa. It did not cite Osborn and distinguished Katz.
The above cases all concerned restrictions on federal action under the Fourth Amendment, but Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961) held in substance that all evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the United States Constitution is inadmissible in a criminal trial in the State court, and thus incorporated the scope of the Fourth Amendment within the Fourteenth.
It does not follow that, if the intrusion in the case at bar by police agents, did not violate the Fourth Amendment, as incorporated into the Fourteenth, that there can be no civil liability for the intrusion.
A State constitutionally has power to provide protection for the right to privacy. In Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) the Court stated, “But the protection of a person’s general right to privacy — his right to be let alone by other people — is, like the protection of his property and of his very life, left largely to the law of the individual States.” [pp. 350-351, 88 S.Ct. p. 510] [Emphasis in text].
Justice Harlan in a concurring and dissenting opinion in Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U.S. 374, 87 S.Ct. 534, 17 L.Ed.2d 456 stated, “The power of a State to control and remedy such intrusion [‘upon * * * solitude or private affairs in order to obtain information for publication’] for news gathering purposes cannot be denied, cf. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081, * * [p. 404, 87 S.Ct. p. 550],
Justice Fortas, dissenting in Time, Inc. v. Hill, supra, stated, “Privacy, then, is a basic right. The States may, by appropriate legislation and within proper bounds, enact laws to vindicate that right. Cf. Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77, 69 S.Ct. 448, 93 L.Ed. 513 (1949), sustaining a local ordinance regulating the use of sound trucks; and Breard v. Alexandria, 341 U.S. 622, 71 S.Ct. 920, 95 L.Ed. 1233 (1951), sustaining a state law restricting solicitation in private homes of magazine subscriptions.” [p. 415, 87 S.Ct. p. 556].
Justice Brennan, writing for the Court in Time, Inc. v. Hill, supra, took care to state in footnote 9, p. 385, 87 S.Ct., p. 541, “Nor do we intimate any view whether the Constitution limits state power to sanction publication of matter obtained by an intrusion into a protected area, for example, through use of electronic listening devices.”
A State is free to reassess the interests involved and reach results that restrict the activities of state police to a greater extent than do the decisions of the Supreme Court. The Fourth Amendment, incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment by Mapp, says only that the police cannot engage in certain activities. It does not dictate that the police be given the privilege to engage in activities it does not prohibit.
A state must enforce the federal exclusionary rules in a criminal prosecution because of Mapp v. Ohio, supra. But a State court can also enforce the additional restrictions it would impose on the police, by recognizing a private right of action for intrusion by the victim of police activity even if the activity does not violate the Fourth Amendment. In fact, a State might recognize a civil action for intrusion when it would not exclude evidence in a criminal prosecu*252tion because of the intrusion. The rationale would be that an unsuccessful prosecution is too high a social price to pay to deter the police.
Various conflicting interests would be weighed by a State court in arriving at a decision as to whether it would allow the cause of action involved in this case. Certain interests that cut toward restricting police activities, include the interest of citizens in privacy, the interests of preventing the police from violating the societal norms of what constitutes fair play and the interest in preventing behavior by the police which could cumulate in tyranny. The primary interest that cuts the other way, is that of society in discovering and successfully prosecuting criminal activities.
There is a basis however for believing that in spite of Life’s agreement with law enforcement officers, law enforcement interest was not furthered by the intrusion. Time admits [appellant’s reply brief p. 16] that the intrusion was conducted primarily for its benefit. The law enforcement officers had already on two occasions obtained recordings which should have been sufficient for a prosecution. When allied with the police in making intrusions, the press can serve its private purpose without the public prosecution interest being served.
There is a risk that an intrusion from such an alliance between press and police would not further the public prosecution interest, if the press were allowed to decide when the alliances were formed and when the intrusion should take place.
Here Time, through its publication Life, realizing it could not unilaterally invade Dietemann’s house and privacy, sought the protection of cooperation with state officials. The officials, recognizing their duty not to publicly expose the results of police investigations, accepted the services of Life. Each thereby achieved jointly which neither could have achieved separately.
No California case has expressly considered. the existence of a cause of action for an invasion of privacy by an intrusion by either private persons or police agents. We are therefore required to place ourselves in the position of the highest California court considering the matter initially. United States v. Hayes (9 Cir.1966) 369 F.2d 671; Edwards v. American Home Assurance Company (9 Cir.1966) 361 F.2d 622; See Gates v. P. F. Collier, Inc. (9 Cir.1967) 378 F.2d 888, cert. denied 389 U.S. 1038, 88 S.Ct. 774, 19 L.Ed.2d 827 (1968); 1 Barron & Holtzoff, Fed. Practice and Procedure, § 8, p. 40 (1960).
California Supreme Court cases in the general privacy realm have suggested a sensitivity to protecting “the right to be let alone.” Gill v. Curtis Publishing Co., 38 Cal.2d 273, 275, 239 P.2d 630, 632 (1952). In denying recovery for the publication of a photo taken in the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market, the court noted that a different result might have occurred if the picture had been “surreptitiously snapped on private grounds.” Gill v. Hearst Publishing Company, 40 Cal.2d 224, 230, 253 P.2d 441 (1953).
Recently the court authored a right to financial privacy in invalidating a financial disclosure statute for public officials. Carmel-By-The-Sea v. Young, 2 Cal.3d 259, 85 Cal.Rptr. 1, 466 P.2d 225 (1970). See Briscoe v. Reader’s Digest Ass’n (1971) 4 Cal.3d 529, 93 Cal.Rptr. 866, 869, 483 P.2d 34, 37, where the court discusses the right of privacy and “the increasing capability of * * * electronic devices” to interfere therewith.
Based on the above considerations, and the California cases cited by the majority, we believe that California would recognize a cause of action for intrusion against Time for the activities of Life’s employees as agents of the police.
This case presents a proper vehicle for that determination. The issue has been extensively briefed and argued below. The issue should be here decided and not avoided.