United States v. Giovanetti

6 Alaska 454
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedDecember 12, 1921
DocketNos. 1500, 1501-B
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 6 Alaska 454 (United States v. Giovanetti) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Giovanetti, 6 Alaska 454 (D. Alaska 1921).

Opinion

REED, District Judge.

The two cases (United States v. Giovanetti and the United States v. Messerschmidt) involving the validity of the search warrants issued by the United States commissioner, Juneau precinct, were submitted to me upon an agreed statement of facts some time since, on motions in each case for the return of the intoxicating liquors seized by the United States marshal. A number of objections were urged by the counsel for defendant in each case against the procedure under which the warrants were issued, and the law in relation thereto was learnedly argued, and elaborate briefs, citing a large number of authorities, were submitted by counsel.

As opportunity would permit, the court examined all the cases submitted on the questions involved and many others, but in this brief résumé can no more.than give the conclusions of my study thereof. Suffice it to say that very few of the [457]*457opinions, either federal or state, submitted, are in point on the questions in the case at bar, except as to the general principles of law relative to search warrants set forth in the Boyd Case, 116 U. S. 627, 628, 6 Sup. Ct. 524, 29 L. Ed. 746, Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, 34 Sup. Ct. 341, 58 L. Ed. 652, L. R. A. 1915B, 834, Ann. Cas. 1915C, 1177, and in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U. S. 385, 40 Sup. Ct. 182, 64 L. Ed. 319, Gouled v. United States, 255 U. S. 298, 41 Sup. Ct. 261, 65 L. Ed. 647, and other decisions of the Supreme Court. The reason for this is that under a decision of our appellate court the territory has at present two statutes bearing directly on the question of the possession, manufacture, and sale of intoxicating liquor. Both statutes are enforceable, to a large extent, by the same officers, in the one case acting under the provisions of the bone dry law of Alaska, and in the other under the National Prohibition Act. In the case of Abbate v. United States, 270 Fed. 735, Judge Gilbert, for the Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, says:

“The bone dry law of Alaska remains in force, just as do the prohibition laws of tbe states, and the. National Prohibition Act, although in force in all jurisdictions, affects no more the' Alaskan act than it does the state acts.”

Again he says:

“The provision of the National Prohibition Act for the punishment of selling liquor in Alaska is ‘locally inapplicable’ in Alaska, for the reason that Congress has provided for a severer penalty for the act when committed.”

In other words, our appellate court has decided that the two acts, the local prohibition act, known as the Alaska bone dry law (U. S. Comp. St. 1918, U. S. Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §§ 3643b-3643r), and the National Prohibition Act, known as the Volstead Act (41 Stat. 305), are to be construed and may be enforced concurrently; but, where the provisions of the two laws conflict or are antagonistic by reason of more drastic legislation in the local act, the National Prohibition Act must give way to the provisions of the local law. See, also, in this connection, Woods v. City of Seattle (D. C.) 270 Fed. 315, and U. S. v. Peterson (D. C.) 268 Fed. 864.

Having the decision of our appellate court in view, it may readily be seen that in many cases the decisions of federal and state courts relative to search warrants issued for the [458]*458search and .seizure of intoxicating liquors are not in point. For example, where there is no local prohibition act and where the authorization to issue warrants for search and seizure of intoxicating liquors is confined to the process -issued out of federal courts under the national act, or where the local prohibition statute provides for process in the nature of search warrants .to issue under state statutes, the authorities do not necessarily cover the procedure in this territory. To reach a correct conclusion as to the points at issue in the two cases before me, it will therefore be necessary to review the law relative to search warrants now in force in Alaska and determine how far the local search law may be applicable to searches and seizures under the bone dry law of Alaska and also under the National Prohibition Act.

When the laws of the state of Oregon, by the act of May 17, 1884, providing for a civil government in Alaska, were extended to the territory, our local law relative to search warrants, being then a part of the Oregon laws, became effective in the territory. This law was afterward re-enacted by Congress by the act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat. 1326), and, as so re-enacted, comprises chapter 38 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as embodied in the-Compiled Taws of Alaska 1913. The following is a brief summary of chapter 38 of the Compiled Taws of Alaska 1913, being sections 2486 to 2499:

Section 2486, Compiled Taws, authorizes the issuance of a search warrant by any magistrate who has authority to issue a warrant of arrest to be directed to any peace officer, commanding him to search for personal property at any place within the district. Section 2487 specifies the grounds for the issuance of a warrant as follows: First,, when it is.stolen or embezzled; and, second, when the property was used as a means of committing a felony.

In the case at bar neither of these two grounds are material to the discussion in this case, and cannot be of further interest herein. The third ground is that, when property is in the possession of any person, with intent to use it as a means of committing crime, or in the possession of another to whom he may have delivered it for the purpose of concealing it or preventing it from being discovered, it may be taken on the warrant from the possession of such pers'on, or the person .to whom he may have delivered it, or from any house or other [459]*459place occupied by them, or under their control, or either of them.

Section 2488 provides how a search warrant should issue, and further provides that a search warrant cannot be issued but upon an affidavit showing probable cause, naming or describing the person, and describing the property and place to be searched. Section 2489 provides that the magistrate shall exa'mine^the complainant and-witnesses on oath and take their depositions in writing, which must be subscribed by them. Section 2490 provides the form for a search warrant. Sections 2491 to 2499 provide how the officer shall execute a warrant; provide for a receipt to be given by the officer for the property seized, the disposition of the property by the magistrate, when the warrant shall be ’executed, limiting the time and the return of the warrant; provide for an inventory to be made, and that the inventory of the property taken shall be given by the magistrate to the person dispossessed thereof; also for proceedings, when the return is controverted, and the return of the proceedings by the magistrate to the district court.

The general provisions of our local statute with reference to search warrants are almost identical with the provisions of the act of Congress of'June 15, 1917 (40 Stat. 228), and in the National Prohibition Act authority is given for the issuance of a search warrant or the search and seizure of intoxicating liquors, under the provisions of the act of Congress of June 15, 1917.

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Related

State v. Lee
253 P. 533 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1927)
United States v. Boland
7 Alaska 103 (D. Alaska, 1923)

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Bluebook (online)
6 Alaska 454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-giovanetti-akd-1921.