Knipp v. City of Cincinnati

29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 209, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1403
CourtCourt of Common Pleas of Ohio, Hamilton County
DecidedMarch 15, 1932
StatusPublished

This text of 29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 209 (Knipp v. City of Cincinnati) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Hamilton County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Knipp v. City of Cincinnati, 29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 209, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1403 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1932).

Opinion

Darby, J.

The plaintiff in error was charged in the Municipal Court of Cincinnati with a violation of the ordinance forbidding the unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor. [210]*210He was convicted and fined, and brings this action to reverse that judgment.

In the Municipal Court it was claimed that there was no evidence against the defendant which would justify his conviction.

A motion to suppress the evidence taken from his residence was overruled, and the case submitted to the court upon the testimony offered on 'the motion, supplemented by the evidence of the defendant.

It was the claim of the defendant that his residence was entered by the officer who made the arrest, unlawfully, by force, without a warrant either to arrest the defendant or to search the premises. This claim is established.

Briefly, the claim of the officer was that he was informed that a man was lying on the floor of the defendant’s home; that he thereupon went to the home, forced open a window, entered and saw there a man, one Dean, lying on the floor, with a bottle of whisky beside him, and upon going into an adjoining room found beer in bottles and whiskey “boiling” on a stove; the liquor seized at this time is described as “this gallon of moonshine liquor, 90 proof, 45 per cent alcohol, about 75 bottles of beer 2.85 per cent and a ten gallon keg which was boiling on the stove of moonshine liquor.” When the city offered to prove that the liquor seized was intoxicating, the defendant admitted that an analysis of the same showed that it was intoxicating. The real reason the officer entered the building was that because he saw steam on the windows he “knew there was something wrong in the place. I was going in to find out why all the steam on the windows.”

The officer recognized that he did not have sufficient information to procure a search warrant. On page 5 of the bill of exceptions he stated in answer to a question:

«* * * jje asked me whether I had any paper. I told him no, I merely came down to investigate. I locked them up.”

To all appearances, the place entered by the officer was a bona, fide residence of the defendant, and he had no [211]*211information to the contrary. He did not go in by means of any door, but climbed in through a window after opening it. The action of the officer in entering the building in this manner, without a warrant, was a trespass. Such action was not in accordance with the law, nor the spirit of the law.

A search of the premises revealed such facts as showed that the building was probably used for the manufacture or preparation of intoxicating liquor and therefore was a shop, instead of a residence within the meaning of the case of State v. Sabo., 108 O. S., 200, p. 205:

“The mere fact of the manufacture of intoxicating liquor, whether in a cellar, or garret, or any other room of a house, clearly constitutes the dwelling a shop. The Century Dictionary defines the word ‘shop’ as follows: ‘A room or building in which the making, preparing or repairing of an article is carried on, or in which any industry is pursued * * * the place where anything is made; the producing place or source.’ ”

The testimony is that the gallon of moonshine liquor was boiling upon a gas burner, which seems to bring the case clearly within the above definition of a shop. Therefore it must be held that the place where the arrest and seizure were made was not a bona fide residence, but was a shop.

The statutes of Ohio provide when doors may be broken to effect an arrest. Section 13432-14 provides:

“When making an arrest or executing a tuarrant for the arrest of a person charged with an offense, or a search warrant, the officer making the arrest may break down an outer or inner door, or window of a dwelling house or other building, if, after notice of his intention to make such arrest or such search he is refused admittance, but an officer executing a search warrant shall not enter a house or building not described in the warrant.”

General Code Section 6212-27 provides as to the right of entry of buildings and 'the making of searches of buildings by officers. The same provisions are to be found in the city ordinance, Section 57-2. These sections all [212]*212provide as to the manner by which buildings may be entered or search warrants issued and executed.

The court is unable to find any policy on the part of the state to permit officers to search buildings promiscuously without search warrants. The statutes as to search warrants, except as to bona fide, residences, would be entirely nullified if it should be held that a place which is not a bona fide residence is subject to search indiscriminately without a search warrant. To so hold would be contradicted by the concluding clause of Section 6212-27, providing:

“* * * nor shall a search warrant issue to search any other premises not a bona fide private residence, except in accordance with the provisions of law as found in Sections 13482-13488 inclusive, of the .General Code, so far as same may apply.”

The same provision is found'in the ordinance.

Sections 13482-13488 of the General Code, provide the means and steps to be taken in the procurement and execution of search warrants, and it would seem clear under the spirit of these laws that the search of the home of the defendant was not legally made.

The question, however, as to the rights of the city in this case would seem to have been settled by the case of Rosansky v. State, 106 O. S., 442. The 4th clause of the syllabus in that case is:

“4. In prosecutions for violation of the prohibition laws of Ohio, where the charge involves unlawful possession of intoxicating* liquor, a seizure of any contraband property by an officer, lohether the seizure has been made under process unlawfully procured or without any process, will not avoid the seizure nor authorize an order by a magistrate for a return of such contraband io the person from whose possession the same was taken, unless the seizure was made in a bona fide private residence.

“5. In such case all such contraband so seized is admissible in evidence upon the part of the state, and Collateral inquiry for the purpose of determining its competency may not be made into the manner of its seizure.”

[213]*213If that case settled anything, it decided that where contraband (intoxicating liquor unlmo fully possessed) is seized, with or without process, it is competent evidence to be used bn an issue as to the guilt of the possessor.

The case of State v. Sabo, 108 O. S., 200, is another unlawful possession case involving search and seizure, and in that case the court says on page 206:

“We again refer to the principles declared in the Rosansky case, to the effect that contraband property wherever found and hoioever obtained, is admissible as competent evidence against the person in whose possession it is found, and the principles declared in that case clearly apply to stills or other ‘property designed for the manufacture of liquor intended for use in the violation of law, or which has been so used’. The quoted words are found in Section 6212-16 of the General Code, which declares all such property contraband.”

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Bluebook (online)
29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 209, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knipp-v-city-of-cincinnati-ohctcomplhamilt-1932.