N.D.W.Va.: No REP from tax assessor’s view of back of house

The plaintiff here had no reasonable expectation of privacy from the tax assessor looking at his house, including the back, purely for tax assessment purposes, just like plaintiff didn’t as to a meter reader or the postal worker. Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy from the tax assessor doing his job. Covey v. Assessor of Ohio County, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10233 (N.D. W.Va. January 25, 2013):

Much like a property owner has no reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to a meter reader or postal worker entering the curtilage of his or her home for the purposes of reading utility meters and delivering mail, neither do the Coveys have a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to items viewable by the naked eye from the curtilage of their home when a property tax assessor is executing the responsibilities of his employment. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr. Crews did anything beyond executing the normal responsibilities of his employment as a tax assessor, and thus no search was conducted by him under the test delineated in Katz. See Wildgren v. Maple Grove Twp., 429 F.3d 575 (6th Cir. 2005) (“[A] property assessor does not conduct a Fourth Amendment search by entering the curtilage for the tax purpose of naked eye observations of the house’s plainly visible exterior attributes and dimension.”); Taylor v. Mich. Dep’t of Natural Res., 502 F.3d 452, 456-57 (6th Cir. 2007) (Noting the importance of the “methods of observation and purpose of [the entrant’s] conduct” in determining whether a search occurred).

(Updated to change case name.)