Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (Sept. 2023)

This post summarizes a published Fourth Amendment decision released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during September 2023. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit cases are available here. Deputies’ reliance on apparent authority of estranged wife to consent was reasonable; warrantless entry and brief detention of husband did not violate the Fourth Amendment despite the later determination that the wife’s information was untrue Armstrong v. Hutcheson, 80 F.4th 508 (Sept. 13, 2023). The plaintiff’s wife contacted 911 seeking assistance in obtaining personal property from her husband’s house. The couple was formally separated with an agreement, the terms of which provided that the husband’s house was his separate property. The wife was leasing another home. The wife denied the existence of any “paperwork” about the circumstances of the separation to the dispatcher, instead claiming that she had been suddenly locked out the night before. She acknowledged that the plaintiff had guns within the home but denied that he had used or threatened to use any of the weapons. She also informed the dispatcher that their disagreement was purely verbal. One deputy responded, armed with that information. Upon contacting the woman, the deputy determined that the address on her driver’s license did not match the husband’s home. A second deputy arrived soon thereafter. He was familiar with the couple. Within the last two years, this deputy provided the husband “trespass notices” to give to the wife, notifying her that she was not welcome [...]