Court Opinion

ID: 9456329
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:49:18.093629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:56.138262
License: Public Domain

DUFFY, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. This is an appeal from an order of the District Court granting defendants’ motion for the suppression as evidence of approximately $700,000 of counterfeit currency, together with counterfeit plates and equipment, all of which was seized at the time of their arrest on June 14, 1969, at a store which had been rented by defendant Case and which was located on North 46th Street, Milwaukee.
On June 9, Case was observed using a parking lot adjacent to the store which he had rented. The landlord informed the Government agents that Case had rented the store and that a printing press had been delivered to the store.
Adjacent to the store was an L-shaped hallway. People customarily using this hallway included restaurant patrons and deliverymen. The adjoining druggist used this hallway as a storage area.
On June 14, 1969, Government agents were stationed in this hallway. They entered same by the use of a key which the landlord of the building had provided.
The agents heard the printing press in operation in the store which had been rented by Case. They heard a female voice ask “How do you put on the seals and serial numbers ?” They also heard a male voice which said “There is $200,000 down and $100,000 to go.” Thus the agents, standing in the hallway, became aware that a federal crime of large proportions was being committed in their presence. There is no question but that the overheard conversations would have constituted probable cause for an arrest or search warrant, if the agents were properly stationed in the hallway.
The majority opinion states that the agents had no right to be in the hallway adjoining Case’s store. It relies heavily on Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), which involved the Government’s use of statements obtained by means of electronic eavesdropping of a telephone booth. I disagree with the majority’s position because I believe that the hallway was public in character to the extent that conversations overheard in it were non-protected.
The physical structure of the building in which the store rented by defendant Case was located was such that a person standing next to the door could hear *771conversations carried on in the front room. The fact that printing presses were running in turning out $700,000 of counterfeit money would, very likely, cause the parties in the room to speak in a louder tone of voice than would normally be the case.
Under such circumstances, it is well to remember the statement of Justice Stewart in Katz that “What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject to Fourth Amendment protection.” (389 U.S. at 351, 88 S.Ct. at 511).
The inner hallway was not a part of the premises leased by Case. In addition to previously mentioned users of the hallway, the heating and air-conditioning units for the drug store were suspended from the ceiling of the hallway. Several persons other than the defendant Case had keys to the hallway. Also, persons making use of the toilet facilities in the basement of the building would use the stairway from the hall leading to the basement.
The fact that an inner hallway like this is shared to some degree by tenants and by the public is important when dealing with Fourth Amendment claims. As was stated by the Court in Marullo v. United States (5 Cir., 1964), 328 F.2d 361, 363 which dealt with the degree of privacy a motel occupant might expect “* * * But a transient occupant of a motel must share corridors, sidewalks, yards and trees with other occupants. Granted that a tenant has standing to protect the room he occupies, there is nevertheless án element of public or shared property in motel surroundings that is entirely lacking in the enjoyment of one’s home.”
I find the hallway in the commercial establishment involved in the present ease just as public in character as the motel in Marullo and certainly as much of a common hallway as that involved in United States v. Llanes, 398 F.2d 880 (2 Cir., 1968).
As I undérstand the additional points in the opinion of the majority, the Government agents who had legally gained access to the hallway to arrest the Sagasers are said to have violated 18 U.S.C. § 3109 because of a fatal flaw in timing their access to the room. According to the majority, the agents, after announcing their office and that the occupants of the rooms were under arrest, should have, in addition, announced the magic words “Let us in” and then paused an indeterminate number of seconds before forcing their way in. Perhaps this might be so in a normal case with a normal door. But here, the glass in the door enabled the officers to see clearly the direction the defendants Sagasers were taking. As the agent was pronouncing the arrest, he noted that the Sagasers had turned from the door and had started toward the rear of the room “briskly.” They were headed toward the adjoining room where the printing press, plates and $700,000 worth of counterfeit money were located. To quibble over a few seconds under these circumstances seems absurd to me.
It is abundantly clear that probable cause existed for the arrest of the defendants. The fact that a warrant was not obtained does not seem constitutionally fatal to me. The dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice White stated in Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 779, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 2048, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 “* * * And this Court has regularly affirmed the validity of warrantless arrests without any indication whatever that there was time to get a warrant, and indeed where all circumstances pointed to the opposite conclusion. * * *” See also Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct, 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726. In my judgment, the order of the trial court suppressing the evidence should be reversed.