Earl v. United States
| Decision Date | 23 March 1925 |
| Docket Number | No. 4362.,4362. |
| Citation | 4 F.2d 532 |
| Parties | EARL et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
J. L. Finch, of Seattle, Wash., for plaintiffs in error.
Thos. P. Revelle, U. S. Atty., and J. W. Hoar, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Seattle, Wash., for the United States.
Before GILBERT, HUNT, and RUDKIN, Circuit Judges.
The writ of error here presents the question whether evidence relating to a large quantity of intoxicating liquor seized by federal prohibition agents was admitted in violation of the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs in error. The seizure was made under a search warrant, but the sustaining affidavit for the warrant was insufficient to justify its issuance.
We are of the opinion that, under the circumstances disclosed in the evidence, a search warrant was unnecessary, and that the case discloses no unreasonable search or seizure. The seizure was made in a garage, which the plaintiffs in error occupied under a lease. The garage was the basement of a dwelling house, with which it was wholly unconnected, and which was leased to and occupied by other tenants. So far as it concerns this case, the garage was in the position of a detached building, occupied and used only for garage purposes. The prohibition agents had information that it was used by persons "engaged in bootlegging business exclusively." On the day of the seizure the officers, after watching the premises for about four hours, saw the plaintiffs in error approach the garage from the north in an automobile, which was covered with mud and heavily loaded, and saw them enter the garage with the automobile, and knew that immediately they locked the doors. The officers knocked, the doors were opened, and the officers went in, and, seeing the liquor in the car, they seized it.
With the knowledge which they possessed of the apparent violation of the law, the officers would have been justified in intercepting the automobile and searching it before it entered the garage. Milam v. United States (C. C. A.) 296 F. 629; United States v. Fenton (D. C.) 268 F. 221; United States v. Bateman (D. C.) 278 F. 231; United States v. Rembert (D. C.) 284 F. 996; Ash v. United States (C. C. A.) 299 F. 277. We cannot see that their authority to make the seizure was diminished by the fact that the automobile was taken into the garage. A garage, such as that in question here, is not a "house," within the protection of the constitutional amendment. It is no...
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State v. Williams
...and each is a violation of the National Prohibition Act, and the court could properly impose punishment on each count. In Earl v. United States, 9 Cir., 4 F.2d 532, upon the same facts a similar decision was rendered in which the Bell and Massy cases were cited. In Loomis v. United States, ......
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...83, 26 Cal.Rptr. p. 430.) As to the garage that, too, was not under the protection of the constitutional prohibition. In Earl v. United States, 4 F.2d 532 (9th Cir.1925), a garage, the basement of a dwelling house occupied by other tenants was searched. The court said at pages 532-533: '* *......
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