BONNIE BLOOM, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1973-06-29
No. 72-709
MAGER, J., concurs., WALDEN, J., concurs specially.
283 So. 2d 134 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1973) Caution
Cited by 20 cases

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Synopsis

Bonnie Bloom appeals her grand larceny conviction, challenging the validity of search warrants that failed to particularly describe the property to be seized. The court reverses, holding that defective search warrants cannot be cured by supporting affidavits unless the affidavit and warrant are physically connected and the warrant expressly incorporates the affidavit by reference.


Holding

A search warrant that does not particularly describe the property to be seized is invalid on its face and violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and the Florida Constitution. Supporting affidavits cannot cure this defect unless they are physically connected to the warrant and the warrant expressly incorporates them by reference, which was not the case here.


Headnotes

[1] A search warrant must particularly describe the property to be seized to comply with constitutional and statutory requirements.

[2] A search warrant that fails to describe with particularity the property to be seized is invalid on its face.

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Key Quotes

“the United States Constitution, amend. IV, and the Florida Constitution, art. 1, § 12, F.S.A., provide that search warrants shall particularly describe the property to be seized”

Establishes the constitutional requirement for particular description of property in search warrants

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Facts & Procedural History

Bonnie Bloom and Henry D. Bloom were charged with three counts of grand larceny involving furniture and currency. Following a tip from a confidential …

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Opinion of the Court
CROSS, Judge.

CROSS, Judge.

Appellant-defendant, Bonnie Bloom, was informed against for the crime of grand larceny, tried and convicted by a jury, adjudged guilty by the court with imposition of sentence. We reverse.

Bonnie Bloom and one Henry D. Bloom were jointly charged by information containing three counts of grand larceny of furniture of the value of one hundred dollars or more, the property of Home Beautiful, Inc. (count one), J. J. Cater Furniture, Inc. (count two), and with larceny of good and lawful currency of the United States of the value of one hundred dollars or more, the property of Pauline Williamson d/b/a Park Furniture (count three).

On September 18, 1970, a dentist’s office had been broken into and seventeen blank checks stolen. A confidential informant contacted the police and informed them that the Blooms had the checks. An agent and the informant went to the apartment complex where the Blooms resided. The informant entered the Blooms’ apartment and returned with four of the seventeen stolen checks. On the basis of this information, an affidavit was signed for issuance of a search warrant. The search warrant that issued commanded that the Blooms’ apartment be searched and that “stolen property received and concealed upon the aforesaid premises in violation of Section 811.16, Florida Statutes,” be seized. The search warrant was executed, and blank checks in the name of the Market Street Loan Association were seized, inter alia.

While executing the search warrant, the officers noticed¿new furniture in the apartment. When the officers subsequently learned that the furniture had been stolen, another affidavit for search warrant was sworn to, and a second search warrant issued. This search warrant again commanded the officers to search Blooms’ apartment and to seize “stolen property [possessed] in violation of Section 811.16, Florida Statute.” The search warrant was executed and the furniture upon which the information was based seized.

At a pre-trial hearing, a motion to suppress the items seized under the search warrants was made on the ground, inter alia, that the search warrants were invalid on their face as they did not describe with particularity the property to be seized. The motion was denied.

At trial, it was shown that Henry Bloom would purchase furniture from local furniture stores and pay for his purchase with a check purportedly issued by the Market Street Loan Association. In this manner, the Blooms accumulated furniture valued in excess of $3500. In reference to the third count, the state showed that Henry D. Bloom went to Park Furniture where he ordered furniture valued at $680, which was to be delivered the following Tuesday. The purchase was paid for by a check purportedly issued by the Market Street Loan Association in the amount of $1,000. The difference between the value of the furniture and the face amount of the check was paid to Henry D. Bloom in cash. Both defendants were found guilty as charged, and Bonnie Bloom brings this appeal.

The primary thrust of this appeal is whether a search warrant which does not particularly describe the property to be seized is valid.

The United States Constitution, amend. IV, and the Florida Constitution, art. 1, § 12, F.S.A., provide that search warrants shall particularly describe the property to be seized. This constitutional command is further amplified by Section 933.05, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which specifically prohibits the issuance of search warrants in blank and again commands that the warrant particularly describe the property or thing to be seized. This emphasis on a description of the property to be seized is also illustrated by Section 923.-12, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., a statutory form for a search warrant, which form provides a place for a description of the property to be seized. Under the foregoing authority, it is clear that the search warrant was invalid on its face for its failure to limit the discretion of the officer executing the warrant. State v. Nelson, 84 S.D. 218, 169 N.W. 2d 533 (1969); see also Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 48 S.Ct. 74, 72 L.Ed. 231 (1927).

We note from the record on appeal the affidavits on which the issuance of the search warrants was based described the property to be seized. Thus the question becomes whether search warrants, invalid on their face, may be validated by the presence of properly drawn supporting affidavits.

There is a fundamental distinction between a search warrant and the underlying or supporting affidavit, and the affidavit is not necessarily either part of the warrant nor available for defining the scope of the warrant. Moore v. United States, 149 U.S.App.D.C. 150, 461 F. 2d 1236 (1972). Therefore, even if the affidavit which supported the warrant was sufficiently detailed, it would not cure the defect in the search warrant consisting of a failure to describe items to be seized with particularity, since specificity is required in the search warrant so that the discretion of the officer executing the search warrant is limited. State v. Muldowney, 60 N.J. 594, 292 A. 2d 26 (1972); see also Marron v. United States, supra.

Some decisions, however, have permitted an affidavit to cure a defective search warrant where the affidavit and the search warrant are such that they can be reasonably said to constitute one document. Two requirements must be satisfied to reach this result: first, the affidavit and search warrant must be physically connected so that they constitute one document; and second, the search warrant must expressly refer to the affidavit and incorporate it by reference using suitable words of reference. Moore v. United States, supra, aff’g United States v. Moore, 263 A. 2d 652 (D.C.App.1970); United States v. Ortiz, 311 F.Supp. 880 (D.C.Colo.1970), aff’d 445 F. 2d 1100, cert. denied 404 U.S. 993, 92 S.Ct. 541, 30 L.Ed.2d 545.

In the casej sub judice the above requirements have not been satisfied; the affidavits therefore do not cure the fatal defect in the search warrant consisting of a failure to particularly describe the property to be seized. Therefore, it was error for the trial court not to have suppressed the evidence seized as a result of the search warrant. Florida Const., art. 1, § 12, F.S.A. Accordingly, the judgments are reversed, the sentences vacated and set aside, and the cause remanded for a new trial.

Reversed and remanded.

MAGER, J., concurs.

WALDEN, J., concurs specially.

Concurrence
WALDEN, Judge

WALDEN, Judge

(specially concurring) :

I concur fully in the opinion which finds the search warrant to be fatally defective. For the possible government of the trial court upon remand and retrial, I further record my opinion as concerns the trial court procedures:
A. The proofs were insufficient to establish the guilt of appellant — both as to identity and the essential elements of the charged crime.

B. The jury was insufficiently charged as to the elements of the crime.

Other

Ordered that the Petition of Rehearing having been granted by order of this court, and the court having heard arguments of counsel for the respective parties, the original opinion dated June 29, 1973 is adhered to.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Hudson v. State, 368 So. 2d 899 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)
    …eed, the order expressly authorizes the seizure of all voice communications over the defendant’s telephone. Moreover, the wiretap order does not expressly incorporate the supporting affidavit by reference, and, under the authority of Bloom v. State, 283 So. 2d 134, 136 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973),2 the affidavit can form no part of the order. C I concur in the balance of the court’s opinion herein. The defendant in her brief and oral argument places inordinate emphasis on alleged misstatements of fact in the suppor…
    1 / 2
  • Booze v. State, 291 So. 2d 262 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974)
    …and seize the property particularly described. Joyner v. City of Lakeland, Fla. 1956, 90 So. 2d 118. We find nothing in the authorities cited by the appellant which should encourage belief in this appeal’s merit. Bloom v. State, Fla.App. 4th 1973, 283 So. 2d 134, invalidated a warrant directing seizure of “stolen property received and concealed upon the aforesaid premises in violation of Section 811.16, Florida Statutes,” which cannot be said to describe particularly the property to be seized, as the Consti…
  • Pezzella v. State, 390 So. 2d 97 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)
    …etion of the executing officer, it is constitutionally overbroad. Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 48 S.Ct. 74, 72 L.Ed. 231 (1927). What constitutes a sufficient description is dependent upon the circumstances of the case. In Bloom v. State, 283 So. 2d 134 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973), a search warrant commanding the seizure of “stolen property [possessed] in violation of Section 811.16, Florida Statutes,” was held to insufficiently detail the property to be seized. Also, in United States v. Quantity of Extrac…

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