State v. Glenn

• Decision Date: 21 March 1983
• Citation: 649 S.W.2d 584
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Curtis Anthony GLENN, Defendant-Appellee. 649 S.W.2d 584
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 584

649 S.W.2d 584

STATE of Tennessee, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Curtis Anthony GLENN, Defendant-Appellee.

649 S.W.2d 584

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

March 21, 1983.

William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen., Jennifer Helton Small, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Ray Baker, Asst. Dist. Atty. Gen., Memphis, for plaintiff-appellant.

Edward Witt Chandler, Memphis, for defendant-appellee.

OPINION

DROWOTA, Justice.

We granted the State's Rule 11 application for permission to appeal in order to consider the scope of a warrantless inventory search of an automobile lawfully impounded, pursuant to T.C.A. Sec. 52-1443(b)(4). In a split decision, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that "closed containers found in the trunk of an impounded vehicle, absent exigent circumstances, may not be opened." We must determine whether the Court of Criminal Appeals was correct in suppressing evidence found in closed containers, during an inventory search of Defendant's vehicle.

The Defendant, Curtis Anthony Glenn, while driving a Cadillac with Michigan license plates, was arrested for speeding and reckless driving on Interstate 40 as he entered Shelby County, having traveled through Fayette and Haywood Counties. At the time the automobile was stopped, there was a strong odor of incense in the air. "With the officers finding in the passenger compartment what they believed to be a marijuana cigarette, cocaine and extensive drug paraphernalia," two members of the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the automobile was properly seized by the officers pursuant to T.C.A. Sec. 52-1443, for violation of the Tennessee Drug Control Act. We agree that the evidence supports their finding that the officers "had the necessary probable cause to seize the automobile," under T.C.A. Sec. 52-1443(b)(4). ¹

After calling for a wrecker to tow the automobile to the state highway garage for storage, the officers proceeded to inventory the contents of the car, including the interior, the hood and the trunk. In the course of the inventory of the trunk, the officers found an open grocery sack containing marijuana. The officers also found a closed, unlocked suitcase and briefcase. Upon opening these closed containers, heroin, cocaine, LSD tablets and more marijuana were found.

Glenn challenges the admissibility into evidence by the trial court of the drugs seized from the trunk. All of the drugs, the possession of which Glenn was tried and convicted, were found in the trunk of the automobile. At the pre-trial hearing of the motion to suppress, the evidence established the Defendant as the owner of the vehicle and the operator and possessor of the vehicle at the time of his arrest and he therefore had standing to contest the admissibility of the evidence found in the trunk. Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981); Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978).

The jury found the Defendant guilty of possession of four controlled substances with intent to sell or deliver and the trial court approved the jury's verdict and entered judgments and sentences accordingly. A majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the unlawful possession of marijuana conviction, finding that the marijuana was in plain view in an open sack in the trunk, and therefore properly admitted into evidence. A majority held that the drugs in the other three cases should have been suppressed and those cases were therefore reversed and remanded for a new trial, a majority of the Court finding "that closed containers found in the trunk of an impounded vehicle, absent exigent circumstances, may not be opened." Judge Tatum, in his dissent, found that a lawful inventory should extend to the contents of the containers.

Unlike State v. Roberge, 642 S.W.2d 716 (Tenn.1982) and State v. Howard, 645 S.W.2d 751 (Tenn.1982), we have no Drinkard v. State, 584 S.W.2d 650 (Tenn.1979) considerations concerning the propriety of impoundment, for, as the Court of Criminal Appeals held, "T.C.A. Sec. 52-1443(b)(4) authorizes the warrantless seizure of the vehicle here." In Drinkard, this Court held that taking a citizen's vehicle into custody following an arrest for a traffic violation is inappropriate when reasonable alternatives to impoundment exist--such as leaving the car in the care of the Defendant's passenger. In Roberge and Howard, we held that there were no reasonable alternatives other than to have the automobiles impounded, because there were no individuals with whom the Defendants could make custodial arrangements for their automobiles, and they could not be left on an interstate or in a high crime area.

The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded "that the seizure of the automobile was appropriate" and that "the opening of the trunk during the inventory was proper. Capps v. State, 505 S.W.2d 727 (Tenn.1974)." We agree that the automobile was lawfully impounded and that it was proper, in conducting an inventory, to make an accounting of the contents of the trunk.

We now address the primary issue in this case--the extent and scope of the inventory of Defendant's trunk. Defendant contends that his briefcase and suitcase should have been inventoried as separate units, and that it was improper to open these units in making an inventory. The State contends that it was proper to open the briefcase and suitcase in order to properly itemize the contents of these containers.

There has been no consensus among the jurisdictions on whether inventorying the contents of a closed container found in a lawfully impounded vehicle is, in the absence of exigent circumstances, reasonable or unreasonable. While cognizant of the axiom that "[t]he test of reasonableness cannot be fixed by per se rules; each case must be decided on its own facts," Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971), we are also mindful that there are legitimate purposes for conducting inventory searches. These purposes are set out in South Dakota v Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 369, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 3097, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976), as (1) the protection of the owner's property while it remains in police custody, (2) the protection of the police against claims or disputes over lost or stolen property, and (3) the protection of the police from potential danger.

Cases dealing with what is or is not reasonable point out that there is a delicate balance between conflicting public and private interests--the need to search in order to protect law officers and car owners and the invasion of Fourth Amendment protected interests of private citizens.

In support of Defendant's contention, the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently held that, "[t]he balance tips in favor of the privacy of personal effects because the purpose of an inventory can be adequately served by inventorying a container as a closed unit. It is thereby secure from theft, and exposure to claims of loss is reduced .... Therefore, in conducting an inventory search of a vehicle, police officials may not open or search the contents of closed containers which could alternatively be removed from the vehicle and inventoried as a unit." State v. Prober, 98 Wis.2d 345, 297 N.W.2d 1, 7 (1980) (purse). Other courts following this rationale include: People v. Bayles, 82 Ill.2d 128, 44 Ill.Dec. 880, 411 N.E.2d 1346 (Ill.1980) (closed, unlocked suitcase); People v. Dennison, 61 Ill.App.3d 473, 18 Ill.Dec. 756, 378 N.E.2d 220 (Ill.App.78) (closed toolbox); United States v. Bloomfield, 594 F.2d 1200 (8th Cir.1979) (knapsack, zipper-closed and tied); Mozzetti v. Superior Court of Sacramento Co., 4 Cal.3d 699, 94 Cal.Rptr. 412, 484 P.2d 84, (1971) (unlocked suitcase).

Perhaps the leading case supporting Defendant's theory that the inventory search was unreasonable is Mozzetti v. Superior Court of Sacramento Co., Id. In Mozzetti, the police removed a car which had been involved in an accident and was blocking the roadway. In accordance with standard police procedures, the contents of the car were inventoried. In the course of the inventory, the police discovered a small suitcase on the back seat of the car. The suitcase was closed but unlocked. Upon opening it, an officer discovered a plastic bag containing marijuana. The Defendant, who had been rushed to the hospital following the accident, sought to suppress the evidence obtained during the inventory. The California Supreme Court made the following observations:

It seems undeniable that a routine police inventory of the contents of an automobile involves a substantial invasion into the privacy of the vehicle owner. Regardless of professed benevolent purposes and euphemistic explication, an inventory search involves a thorough exploration by the police into the private property of an individual. In that process suitcases, briefcases, sealed packages, purses--anything left open or closed within the vehicle--is subjected without limitation to the prying eyes of authorities. Merely because the police are not searching with the express purpose of finding evidence of crime, they are not exempt from the requirements of reasonableness set down in the Fourth Amendment. Constitutional rights may not be evaded through the route of finely honed but nonsubstantive distinctions.

* * *

The interests of a vehicle owner are said to be protected by police inventory because the procedure provides the owner with a detailed list of the articles taken into custody by the police, an itemization he can use in making valid claims for loss or damage against the police and the storage bailee. Also, the inventory brings to light articles of special value or of a perishable nature which might require unusual care by the police and the storage bailee.

This contention is rebutted by recognition of the vehicle owner's countervailing interest in maintaining the privacy of his personal effects and preventing anyone, including the police, from searching suitcases, and other closed containers and...