Patel v. City of Montclair, No. 13-55632 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, owner of HSF and the Galleria Motel, filed suit against the City and its police officers under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that the officers violated the Fourth Amendment. The officers entered the public areas of the Galleria Motel and issued citations based on code violations they observed in plain view. The court concluded that the areas of the Galleria Motel open to the public are not within the enumerated items in the Fourth Amendment; therefore, no search occurs when police officers enter those areas. In this case, the complaint alleged only that police officers entered the public areas of the Galleria Motel. Therefore, plaintiff failed to demonstrate a reasonable expectation of privacy pursuant to Katz v. United States. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's dismissal of the complaint.
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel affirmed the district court’s order dismissing a complaint brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that police officers violated plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights when they came onto the public areas of his motel and cited him for code violations observed in plain view. The panel held that police officers do not conduct a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment merely by entering an area of private, commercial property that is open to the public. PATEL V. CITY OF MONTCLAIR 3
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