State v. A. S. (In re A. S.)
State v. A. S. (In re A. S.)
Opinion of the Court
LINDER, S. J.
*724In this juvenile delinquency case, the juvenile court found youth to be in the court's jurisdiction based on youth's unlawful possession of a firearm. ORS 166.250. On appeal, youth challenges the juvenile court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence of a gun that police found in youth's bedroom when they searched it based on consent given by youth's grandmother, who owned the home where youth was living. Youth argues that his grandmother could not authorize the search as against him because he was present at the time and objected to it. As we will explain, we conclude that the grandmother's consent was valid and, as a result, the search was lawful. We therefore affirm.
Although the parties disagree on the legal significance of the facts in the record, the facts themselves are not disputed. In all events, we state the facts and all reasonable inferences that the record supports in the light most favorable to the juvenile court's denial of the motion to suppress. State v. Beylund ,
At the time of the events involved in this case, youth was 16 years old and was living with his grandmother in a home that she owned. Youth, who had his own bedroom in the home, had lived there for two and one-half years. Youth helped with chores by "taking out the garbage, cleaning his own room," and otherwise doing "those kind of things." Youth paid no rent of any kind, however, and his grandmother required him to follow the rules that she set. Youth resisted the idea that his grandmother could go into his room at will, stating "emphatically" in conversations with her that it was his room. But his grandmother, just as emphatically, told him that "it's my house. If I want to go in there, I will go in there." And she did. The door was never locked. Youth's grandmother did not need his permission to enter his bedroom. She regularly went into youth's room to, among other things, wake him up for school, make sure windows were closed, and clean. Throughout the time that youth lived there, his grandmother's position was:
*725"[I]f there's reasons for me to go in [youth's bedroom], I will go in. He's still in our home and still 16 and I will go in if I need to." Even so, she tried to "respect his space" by, for example, knocking on the door if it was shut before entering and not cleaning or picking up in the room right after waking youth if it disturbed him at that time. On those occasions, she would come back later, at which point she would clean and pick up things in the room as she chose.
The search in this case occurred after Officer Culp, a police officer who is also a high school resource officer, received a report that youth and one of his friends (Cameron, a 19-year-old former student) showed up with handguns the day before at an off-campus fight. Culp and two other officers went to *622youth's home to investigate. The grandmother allowed the officers into the house. Then she walked directly back to youth's room and entered, permitting the officers to enter the bedroom with her. At the time, youth, Cameron, and a third friend (a 16 year old) were all asleep in youth's room.
Youth was charged with committing acts that, if committed by an adult, would constitute unlawful possession *726of a weapon under ORS 166.250. At trial, relying on both state and federal constitutional grounds, youth moved to suppress the evidence of the firearm seized in the search. In support of his motion, youth argued that his grandmother's consent to search was invalid as against him, because youth was physically present and expressly objected to the search. In response, the state argued that youth's grandmother, throughout the time that youth lived there, made it clear that it was "her house, her rules." As a result, the state contended, youth's grandmother retained full control over the premises, including youth's room and, therefore, had lawful authority to consent to the search despite youth's objection.
At the conclusion of the hearing on the motion to suppress, the juvenile court denied the motion, explaining:
"[T]he situation here is that the owner of the property, not even a landlord, basically a grandmother who was letting her grandson live in her home and who had asserted authority always over the room and being able to go in and out freely, really has a superior decision-making authority.
"I don't think it matters [that] the youth was there at the time that she gave consent. So I'm going to deny the motion to suppress."
After that ruling, the case proceeded to trial, and the juvenile court found youth to be in the jurisdiction of the court based on his unlawful possession of a firearm. This appeal followed. On appeal, although their positions are further developed and refined, the parties largely renew the arguments that they made to the juvenile court.
The pertinent state and federal law principles are sufficiently parallel that we describe them in tandem. Under both Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution and the *727Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution,
Issues of the validity of third-party consent arise frequently in the context of individuals who live together in a common household. There, under the "common authority" doctrine, the general rule is that any of the joint users or co-occupants of the common premises has actual authority to consent to a search. That rule was first announced as a Fourth Amendment principle in Matlock ,
"Common authority is, of course, not to be implied from the mere property interest a third party has in the property. * * * [It] rests rather on mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes, so that it is reasonable to recognize that any of the co-inhabitants has the right to permit the inspection in his own right and that the others have assumed the risk that one of their number might permit the common area to be searched."
Matlock ,
But the general rule is just that: a general rule. Consistently with its rationale, the presumption of common authority gives way if co-occupants, instead of exercising joint access or control of the premises *624for most purposes, *729have a mutual understanding or agreement giving one of them exclusive authority over the premises or the portion searched. See generally Kurokawa-Lasciak ,
Finally, cases involving cohabitating "parents or other relatives pose unique problems" in the analysis. Carsey ,
"stem[ ] from the fact that families ordinarily have common use of many household areas; that it is normal for the owner of a home to exercise control over all areas of the home, or if control is not actually exercised or is seldom exercised, that the right to exercise control over all areas exists; and that parents, by reason of the parent-child relationship, have a measure of control over all aspects of their children's lives, activities, effects, and living quarters."
Id . Thus, in the context of family members sharing a common household, competing considerations come into play, particularly where minor and dependent family members *730are concerned. The shared use of most of the premises provides a basis to presume common authority for any family member to consent to a search, while the rights and responsibilities of the adults, either as property owners or parents or both, give rise to superior authority vís-á-vís minors residing in the household. The analysis of authority to consent in family households that include adults and minors therefore does not lend itself to per se rules. See, e.g. , Carsey ,
Those legal precepts bring us to this case and its particular facts. As we described earlier, the juvenile court expressly found that youth's grandmother was "the owner of the property" and that she and youth were not in *625a landlord-tenant relationship; instead, youth's grandmother was permissively "letting her grandson live in her home." The juvenile court further expressly found that the grandmother had "always" asserted her authority over the room that youth occupied, including her authority "to go in and out freely." Those findings are amply supported by the record, including the grandmother's specific testimony that she was emphatic in asserting her authority over youth's room, because it was *731"her house"; that she in fact regularly went into youth's room, without his permission or the need for it; and that she exercised control over the room and its contents as she chose.
The question remains, however, whether those facts support the legal conclusion that youth's grandmother had actual authority to consent to the search. See Beylund ,
*732In youth's view, however, the presumption of common authority does not apply in this case, on two alternative theories. First, youth urges that he had "exclusive" authority over his room because, in response to his grandmother's emphatic insistence that she could access his room at will, he had insisted just as emphatically that "it's his room." According to youth, the lack of a mutual agreement between him and his grandmother as to the scope of his grandmother's control over his room means that she had no authority to permit police to enter and search his room. That argument, however, turns the common-authority rule on its head. Under that rule, "when there is no evident agreement to the contrary, one co-occupant [of premises] is presumed to have completely assumed all risk that the other will consent to a search; the other has a full quantum of authority." Kurokawa-Lasciak ,
*626Second, youth argues that, even if his grandmother had authority to consent to the search of his room, her authority could not be validly exercised to overcome youth's objection to the search. In support, youth relies on Randolph , where the Court announced, as an exception to the "common authority" rule under the Fourth Amendment, that the consent of one occupant to search common premises is not valid in the face of another physically present co-occupant's expressed objection to the search.
We agree with the state's understanding of Randolph and the limits of its holding. Randolph arose in the context of a husband-wife domestic dispute in which the wife consented to a search of the family home, while the husband, who was present, voiced his refusal.
Randolph does not aid youth in this case. Randolph involved two adults whose relationship to each other and to the premises made them legal and social equals. In concluding that one co-occupant's consent to search could not *734prevail in that circumstance over another's express objection, the Court distinguished situations in which people living together fall within some "recognized hierarchy" of authority. This case involves just such a hierarchy, however. Youth was living permissively with his grandmother in her home. Youth was not a tenant; his grandmother was not a landlord. Although youth shared his grandmother's home, he did not share it as a co-equal. She was a family elder, and the homeowner. Youth was a 16 year old, not an adult. Although his grandmother was respectful of his "space," she relinquished none of her rights to control the premises that youth occupied. To the contrary, she consistently made clear to youth that, while he lived in her home, he had to follow her rules, which included that she retained the unqualified right to have access to his room.
In short, although youth and his grandmother were family members living together in a common household, they were not co-equals in their relationship to the premises. The juvenile court concluded, and we *627agree, that youth's grandmother had a superior right of access to and control over youth's room. To be sure, as youth argues, his grandmother was neither his parent nor a legal guardian with the rights and responsibilities attendant to parental or in loco parentis status. That fact did not render youth co-equal in authority or status to his grandmother, however. It meant only that his grandmother's authority did not derive from the "measure of control [that parents have] over all aspects of their children's lives, activities, effects, and living quarters ." Carsey ,
We therefore agree with the juvenile court's legal conclusion that youth's grandmother had superior authority to control access to youth's room. Consequently, under the Fourth Amendment, his grandmother's consent to search was valid, even though youth was physically present and expressly objected to the search.
Affirmed.
The record suggests that the two friends who were also in youth's room had been sleeping there on an ongoing basis of some kind. Neither paid the grandmother any form of rent. The record about their co-occupancy of youth's bedroom is otherwise undeveloped.
On appeal, under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the state expands its argument by urging as an alternative ground for affirmance that, even if the grandmother did not have actual authority to consent, she had apparent authority. Youth disputes the state's ability to make that argument for the first time on appeal. Because we conclude that the grandmother had actual authority, we do not reach the parties' respective arguments on apparent authority to consent.
Article I, section 9, provides:
"No law shall violate the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search, or seizure; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath, or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized."
The Fourth Amendment provides:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Our cases distinguish between the authority of co-occupants over premises and their authority over personal "effects," even when the effects are located within the common premises. See, e.g. , State v. Fuller ,
Indeed, the record contains evidence of only one potentially "private" personal effect in the room: a safe. The grandmother testified, however, that she possessed the combination to the safe. The record thus supports an inference that nothing in youth's room was off-limits for his grandmother's inspection or otherwise beyond her right of access and control.
Youth relies on two decisions from our court that are inapposite, because neither involved the authority of cohabitants to consent to a search of commonly used or occupied premises . See Kurokawa-Lasciak ,
Youth does not cite any case extending Randolph to an analogous set of facts, nor have we found any. The considered authority appears uniformly contrary to youth's position. LaFave, for example, draws the distinction between the situation in Randolph where "two or more persons have equal use of a place in which both are present," and one where, as here, "one's privacy while present someplace is derivative of and dependent on the privacy of another." Wayne R. LaFave, 4 Search and Seizure § 8.3(d), 213 (5th ed. 2012) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). When minors live with parents and other heads of households, LaFave comments that "it makes sense that the individual with the predominant interest should prevail. Thus, if that individual were to consent to the search, the search could be conducted notwithstanding the present objection of a person with a lesser interest." Id. ; see also id. at 213-14 nn. 79-81 (citing representative cases and authorities).
Youth asks us to adopt the Randolph "disagreeing tenants" exception to the common authority rule under Article I, section 9. We decline to consider whether we should do so because, as we have explained, Randolph 's exception and the rationale for it do not extend to these factual circumstances and would not yield a different result in this case.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.