MD adopts motel manager terminating REP in motel room

Maryland adopts the Sixth Circuit rule of United States v. Allen, 106 F.3d 695, 699 (6th Cir. 1997), on a motel manager terminating motel residency as also terminating a reasonable expectation in the motel room. Bordley v. State, 205 Md. App. 692, 46 A.3d 1204 (2012):

The Sixth Circuit rejected the defense contention that this warrantless entry violated the Fourth Amendment, reasoning that “a hotel guest’s use of a room for illegal purposes, and beyond the pre-paid rental period vitiates the guest’s reasonable expectation of privacy.” Id. at 699. As long as the motel had a “valid and legitimate” reason for terminating the tenancy, “[t]he manager’s consent to the officers’ search of the room was all that was required to avoid constitutional infirmity.” Id. (footnote omitted). Thus, “[o]nce a manager, through private action, took possession of the motel room,” the defendant guest “could no longer assert a legitimate privacy interest in its contents.” Id.

Although we found no Maryland precedent considering the warrantless entry of a locked-out hotel room at the request of hotel management,4 we conclude that here, as in Allen, the legality of the hotel’s consent depends upon whether the hotel locked out the room for a “valid and legitimate reason.” See id. In answering that question, however, we recognize that the Sleep Inn’s asserted reason for locking out Room 118 was not non-payment or misconduct by the registered guest, but rather to safeguard hotel employees and guests.