Court Opinion

ID: 9692808
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:06:35.174184+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:29:19.712768
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Spaeth, J.:
In my view the search warrant was unconstitutionally ambiguous, and I therefore dissent.
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution requires that “no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” (Emphasis added.) Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution contains a similar requirement: “The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions from unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrant to search any place or to seize any person or things shall issue without describing them as nearly as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation subscribed to by the affiant.” (Emphasis added.) Thus, a search warrant must describe a specific place, accurately and definitively.
*109In the present case, the search warrant described the premises to be searched as those occupied by Eric Kap-lan at “#1821 Pine Street, 3rd floor front — 3 story building.” In fact, the building was four floors and Kaplan’s apartment was located in the rear of the third floor, not in the front. The majority and concurring opinions argue nevertheless that because the warrant specified Kaplan’s apartment, it “left no room for interpretation concerning the area to be searched.” Hoffman, J., concurring opinion, p. 107. I disagree. It seems to me, that as the warrant was written, the police could have chosen to search either the third floor front apartment or the apartment marked as Kaplan’s. There is no reason why the name should be more determinative than the location. Indeed, I should have thought the opposite to be true. See United States v. Ortiz, 311 F. Supp. 880, 883 (D. Colo. 1970), aff’d, 445 F.2d 1100 (10th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 993 (“[T]here is no need to include the owner’s or defendant’s name on a search warrant that otherwise sufficiently describes the premises to be searched.”).
The specificity requirement was designed to prevent precisely the situation we have here, where the police are allowed to choose which apartment to search.1 In United States v. Higgins, 428 F.2d 232 (7th Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 959, the search warrant authorized a search of “the premises known as basement apartment *110building at 4432-38 South Calumet Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.” The actual building at that address was a three-story building with four apartments on each floor and three in the basement. One of these basement apartments was occupied by the Barfield family, another by Morris Jones, and a third by defendant Higgins. The court described the police actions on the night of the search as follows: “On the evening of February 17, 1966, Barfield was sleeping when a man entered his apartment, looked around, asked Barfield if he knew a man named ‘Sonny,’ and left. Shortly thereafter, Jones was in bed when two men who identified themselves as police officers kicked open his partially closed door, entered his apartment and left in about five minutes. A few minutes later the agents kicked in the door to Higgins’ apartment, conducted a search and arrested him. ... It must be evident that the officers could not determine from the warrant which apartment was to be searched and that they made that determination by searching all apartments until they discovered the one they were looking for.” Id. at 234-235. The court held the warrant to be constitutionally defective for lack of specificity. The same decision should be made in the present case if we are to prevent such occurrences from happening in Pennsylvania.
In addition, as Judge Hoffman observes, the search cannot be constitutionally justified on the basis of consent. In Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 549 (1968), the United States Supreme Court held: “A search conducted in reliance upon a warrant cannot later be justified on the basis of consent if it turns out that the warrant was invalid.” (Footnote omitted.) Since I believe the warrant was invalid in this case, appellant’s decision to lead the police to his apartment when confronted with the search warrant cannot be construed as voluntary consent.
The judgment of sentence should be reversed.

. “[T]he determining factor . . . whether a search warrant describes the premises to he searched with sufficient particularity is . . . whether there is any reasonable probability that another premises might be mistakenly searched which is not the one intended to be searched under the search warrant.” United States v. Sklaroff, 323 F. Supp. 296, 321 (S.D. Fla. 1971). See also Commonwealth v. Copertino, 209 Pa. Superior Ct. 63, 224 A.2d 228 (1966) (search warrant giving authority to search' a two story building at “Passyunk Ave., 7217 W.—2 story dwelling with store front.” Occupied by Marie Ipri, John Dubois, Alfred Battipaglia and Silvo Lerro, held invalid because there were in fact two separate apartments at that address).