In this appeal, we address whether a resident of a boarding house has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a common hallway accessible by other residents. The court determined that the Law Division improperly denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence seized from his bedroom after the police observed contraband while standing in a hallway in front of defendant's bedroom door. The court concluded that boarding house residents have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the hallways linking their bedrooms to areas traditionally contained within one living unit, such as a bathroom or kitchen, and the warrantless police entry into the home was not justified by the plain view doctrine because the officers did not have a lawful right to enter.
According to the court, whether the residential structure's front door was locked was not dispositive of whether defendant's reasonable expectation of privacy extended beyond his bedroom door, as the exterior door was equipped with a lock and the evidence showed only that the door was unlocked when the police made their warrantless entry, but not at any other time. In addition, drawing on a distinction recognized by courts in other states between apartment buildings and boarding or rooming houses, the court concluded that a boarding house resident's need to use a shared hallway to access his or her bathroom supports a reasonable expectation of privacy in that hallway notwithstanding an unlocked front door. Accordingly, the court held that the trial court should have granted defendant's motion to suppress because he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched, and the State did not establish the warrantless search of the home was justified by the plain view doctrine or any other exception to the warrant requirement.
