United States v. Murray

• Decision Date: 11 July 1931
• Citation: 51 F.2d 516
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. MURRAY.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

51 F.2d 516 (1931)

UNITED STATES v. MURRAY.

District Court, D. Maryland.

July 11, 1931.

Milton H. Talkin, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Baltimore, Md.

R. Palmer Ingram, of Baltimore, Md., for defendant.

CHESNUT, District Judge.

The defendant is indicted for the illegal transportation and possession of intoxicating liquor. In accordance with the now well-established practice, a motion has been made by the defendant in advance of the trial, to suppress evidence proposed to be offered against him in the trial of the case on the ground that it was obtained by an unreasonable and therefore allegedly illegal seizure, in contravention of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

The facts are within a narrow compass. The evidence in support of the motion offered by the defendant consists of the testimony of certain Prohibition Agents who made the seizure and contemporaneous arrest of the defendant. The substance of this testimony is as follows: Agent Thomas F. Andrew, who had been a prohibition agent for about a year and was formerly an automobile salesman, while patrolling the Baltimore-Washington state highway, noticed an automobile of a particular license number (127371), described as a dark blue Chevrolet five-passenger two-door closed car, on April 15, 1931. His attention was attracted to this car, because, as he described it, the body of the car was "riding high" in the rear. The significance of this fact to him, based on his experience as Prohibition Agent in discovering and detecting illegal transportation of liquor, arose from the fact that it has become necessary in order to escape detection in the transportation of liquor, for ordinary passenger automobiles to have additional leaves added to the rear springs of the car so that when heavily loaded with liquor the body of the car will, by reason of the added resistance of the springs, give no indication of an unusual load by the body of the car being obviously depressed on the springs as would be the case if resistance of the springs were not increased by the addition of the extra leaves. The effect of thus equipping ordinary passenger cars is to make them noticeable or abnormal in appearance when the rear of the car is empty and also to make them entirely normal in appearance when heavily loaded.

The defendant also offered the testimony of a witness engaged in the business of making and supplying springs for automobiles, that it is not unusual to add leaves to the springs of passenger automobiles where, for any reason, the springs of the particular car are not sufficiently stiff for comfortable use of the car and that the number of leaves added varies with the particular car and the condition of its particular springs. But from the testimony of the same witness it also appeared that the effect of so adding additional leaves to the ordinary passenger automobile was not ordinarily to make the appearance of the automobile in the rear abnormal but only to make the rear set about one inch higher. That is to say, the rear of the car would not seem to be "riding high," as was the case with the Chevrolet car mentioned in the evidence.

I, therefore, find as a fact under the evidence that the ordinary passenger automobile such as in this case, so equipped with extra leaves in the springs to the unusual and abnormal extent of making it "ride high in the rear" so noticeably as in the particular case, is such an unusual condition of a passenger automobile and so identified in the experience of the Prohibition Agents with the purpose of illegal transportation of liquor, that a car of such an appearance is a very reasonable object of strong suspicion to Prohibition Agents who have specialized in detecting such offenses.

Agent Andrew, having noted the particular appearance of this automobile and having made a memorandum of the license number, again saw the same automobile on the Baltimore-Washington road on April 29, 1931, about 3 p. m., while he and other agents were in a government automobile patrolling the road to detect violations of the law. On this latter occasion the blue Chevrolet was again being driven toward Baltimore and Agent Andrew again noticed that it was "riding high" in the rear. About two and one-half hours later on the same afternoon the Prohibition Agents, having reversed their direction, were proceeding toward Baltimore on what is known as the Crain highway when Agent Andrew again noticed the same blue Chevrolet automobile proceeding toward Washington from Baltimore, and this time he noted that the rear of the car was not "riding high," but that the body appeared to be entirely normal in relation to the springs. He immediately exclaimed to his associate, "There goes a load." At the first convenient turning point the government car turned around and gave chase to the blue Chevrolet. On the prior occasions when Agent Andrew had noticed the car in passing he got the general impression from observation as it was receding from his vision that the springs were extra thick, but of course the rate of speed of the passing cars was such that he had no opportunity for detailed inspection. As, however, the government automobile was overhauling the blue Chevrolet on the last occasion mentioned the unusual thickness of the rear springs was clearly noticeable to him. Agent Andrew stepped out on the...