A Small Civil Rights Case

This afternoon, one of my clients called me from his home in Connecticut. He had just come out of a trial, where he was attempting to sue the town tax assessor for what anyone of reasonable mind would say was an unlawful trespass onto private property.

My client had stepped out of his house to find the tax assessor opening his garage door, entering that garage, and then recording its contents with his camera.

Most of us would be horrified if the tax assessor were to come onto our property, without our permission, in order to record the contents of our homes. Whether or not we leave the doors on our property open, we assume that government officials will ask our permission before entering our homes, or any of the other buildings on our home lot, in order to record the value of the property we may have.

In this instance, the tax assessor threw himself on the mercy of the court, saying that if he were found guilty of trespass, or of violating anyone’s civil rights, he would lose his job.

However, according to what the judge said, it is legal for government employees to enter private property for any reason, without the home-owners permission, and that therefore, this tax assessor was not violating anyone’s civil rights. The only way that tax assessor could be found guilty of trespass, was if the owner of the property could prove that the tax assessor had opened the garage door. The owner’s merely stating that he keeps the door closed all the time, was not sufficient proof.

The tax assessor brought photographs he had taken, which proved beyond any doubt that he had been inside the garage when he took them. But because the owner did not have any witnesses to say the assessor had opened the door to enter, he lost the case.

This verdict even surprised my client’s lawyer, whose job it was to know what laws would affect this case, and what he would have to do to prove his case.