In Re Mahler

426 A.2d 1021, 177 N.J. Super. 337
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJanuary 29, 1981
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 426 A.2d 1021 (In Re Mahler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Mahler, 426 A.2d 1021, 177 N.J. Super. 337 (N.J. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

177 N.J. Super. 337 (1981)
426 A.2d 1021

IN RE APPLICATION OF RUSSELL MAHLER ET AL., FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS. IN RE PETITION OF HUDSON OIL REFINING CORPORATION. IN RE APPLICATION OF EDGEWATER TERMINALS, INC. IN RE APPLICATION OF RUSSELL W. MAHLER.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued November 17, 1980.
Decided January 29, 1981.

*340 Before Judges ALLCORN, KOLE and PRESSLER.

Donald Horowitz argued the cause for appellants Russell W. Mahler and Edgewater Terminals, Inc. (Cummins, Dunn, Horowitz & Pashman, attorneys).

Charles F. Mandell argued the cause for appellant Hudson Oil Refining Corporation.

Robert J. Kleeblatt argued the cause for appellants Donald Wilson and James Carruthers.

Paul M. Cecere argued the cause for appellants Frank Reilly and Robert Vancio.

Eugene Callahan argued the cause for appellant Kenneth Mansfield (Bresin & Callahan, attorneys).

John A. Covino, Deputy Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent State of New Jersey (John J. Degnan, Attorney General, attorney).

*341 Ray A. Farrington, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for respondent County of Bergen (Roger W. Breslin, Jr., Prosecutor of Bergen County, attorney).

K. Douglas Daniel, Deputy Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (James J. West, Deputy Attorney General, attorney).

The opinion of the court was delivered by PRESSLER, J.A.D.

These consolidated appeals arise out of efforts by the State of Pennsylvania to prosecute a New Jersey corporation, Hudson Oil Refining Corporation (Hudson Oil), and a group of its officers and employees, also residents of New Jersey, who are alleged to have engaged in an illegal scheme involving the massive dumping of hazardous industrial wastes into the Susquehanna River. The cases raise important questions of interstate relations where one state is called upon to issue and execute search and extradition warrants in aid of a criminal prosecution by a sister state.

Explication of the issues here involved requires some brief procedural and chronological exposition. The assistance of the State of New Jersey was first sought by Pennsylvania during its investigation of the serious contamination affecting a 35-mile stretch of the Susquehanna River. That investigation led it to believe that Hudson Oil, a New Jersey hazardous industrial waste carrier, had caused or contributed to the contamination by having transported the wastes by tank carrier to the property of a service station in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The service station is located on property on which there is an abandoned mine shaft, and it is Pennsylvania's factual thesis that the wastes were then poured by Hudson Oil Employees from the tank carriers into the mine shaft by way of a bore hole and from thence found their way into the river.[1] The effect of this *342 dumping, Pennsylvania contends, was to contaminate the potable water supply of the City of Denville, to create a risk of lethal gas explosions within the mine shaft, to require the closing of the Susquehanna River to recreational activity and to threaten the aquatic life of the river.

The facts relied on by Pennsylvania to establish probable cause as to Hudson Oil's participation in this illegal dumping scheme, including the results of official surveillance conducted at the service station site after receipt of an anonymous tip implicating Hudson Oil, were set forth in the affidavit of one Fred Karl, Regional Solid Waste Manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. Based on Karl's affidavit, Pennsylvania officials requested the New Jersey Attorney General to apply for a search warrant authorizing the search of Hudson Oil's business premises in Edgewater, Bergen County, New Jersey. That request was complied with and, on October 2, 1979, on application of a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General supported by the Karl affidavit, a search warrant was issued by the Law Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey sitting in Mercer County. The warrant authorized the search of the Edgewater premises for and the seizure therefrom of generally described business records and documents as well as samples of substances stored in oil storage tanks on the premises. The warrant was issued, moreover, upon the specific authorization of R. 3:5-2, which expressly permits issuance of a search warrant to search for and seize property constituting evidence of or tending to show a violation "of the penal laws of this state or any other state."

The warrant was executed on the following day by two officers of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice who were accompanied by various Pennsylvania officials, including Karl, who had specific knowledge about the case. The documents *343 seized were inventoried and physical possession thereof ultimately transferred by the New Jersey officers to the custody of Pennsylvania officials. It appears from the record that the search was conducted in a relatively businesslike, professional and amicable manner in the presence of counsel for Hudson Oil and its president, Russell Mahler. Various objections made during the search to seizure of specific items on the ground that they were not the property of Hudson Oil or Mahler apparently were attempted to be acceded to by the executing New Jersey officers. More specifically, Mahler apparently claimed that the oil tanks themselves and one ledger book were not the property of Hudson Oil but rather of Edgewater Corporation, of which he was also president. The executing officers also agreed not to search for or seize correspondence to and from Hudson Oil's and Mahler's attorneys.

Some weeks following the search, a Pennsylvania multi-county investigating grand jury returned a presentment against Hudson Oil and Mahler as well as those of its employees who are also appellants here, namely, Kenneth Mansfield, its truck dispatcher, and four drivers, Robert Vancio, Frank Reilly, Donald Wilson and James H. Carruthers. The presentment was not, however, made public until February 5, 1980 because of various applications made by these appellants in the courts of Pennsylvania challenging the grand jury proceedings.

In the meantime, Hudson Oil, by petition filed with the Superior Court, Bergen County, sought an order pursuant to R. 3:5-7(a) suppressing the evidence seized in the October search and returning its property to it. It was Hudson Oil's claim that the search was illegal because of alleged vitiating defects in the warrant and supporting affidavit.[2] That petition was subsequently *344 joined in by motion by Mahler and Edgewater Corporation, both claiming that property of theirs had been seized. Edgewater, it should be noted, was not named in the Pennsylvania presentment, and it has been represented throughout that not only is there no proceeding against it in Pennsylvania but also that none is contemplated. It is further stipulated that no proceedings are pending or contemplated against any other of these appellants in New Jersey.

The hearings on the suppression applications, which were opposed by the State of Pennsylvania and the State of New Jersey, were conducted following the publication of the Pennsylvania presentment. The petition of Hudson Oil and the motions of Mahler and Edgewater Corporation were denied by the trial judge without his having considered the merits thereof.

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Bluebook (online)
426 A.2d 1021, 177 N.J. Super. 337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-mahler-njsuperctappdiv-1981.