People v. Doyle

Opinion

SCOTT, Acting P. J .

John Doyle was convicted upon his plea of guilty to two counts of violating Insurance Code section 556, subdivision (a) (presenting a false and fraudulent claim to an insurance company) and one count of violating Penal Code section 487 (grand theft). On appeal he contends that the court erred in denying his motion to suppress certain evidence (Pen. Code, § 1538.5).

The evidence sought to be suppressed was taken without a search warrant from the office of an attorney with his consent. The district attorney investigator seized the attorney’s clients’ files pertaining to personal injury actions, a typewriter and a bank statement of the attorney. Doyle, a nonlawyer, was an office manager and investigator employed by the attorney. He was not a client, and although present at the time of the search, he did not consent thereto..

[128]

Appellant contends that since there was no consent to the search by the clients, there was no valid consent to the seizure of the files. We agree. Initially, we note that a defendant may suppress all illegally obtained evidence sought to be used against him, whether or not it was obtained in violation of that particular defendant’s constitutional rights.

(People

v.

Martin

(1955) 45 Cal.2d 755, 761 [290 P.2d 855];

Kaplan

v.

Superior Court

(1971) 6 Cal.3d 150, 155-162 [98 Cal.Rptr. 649, 491 P.2d 1].) Thus, there is no question of appellant’s standing to raise the issue of the validity of consent and the legality of the search of the clients’ files.

There is no question here that the attorney’s clients did not consent to the search of their files. Such consent was essential in that the clients have a reasonable expectation of privacy as to the information maintained by their attorney in their files. (See

Burrows

v.