Open Inns, Ltd. v. Chester County Sheriff's Department

MEMORANDUM

DALZELL, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, Open Inns, Ltd. and Associated Motor Inns Co., have sued the Chester County Sheriffs Department, its sheriff, and several of its officers to challenge the constitutionality of an admitted Sheriffs Department custom or practice. This practice authorizes Department officers, at any hour of the day or night, to be hired by private parties to accompany and assist them in serving process in civil actions and then to remain on the premises at the behest (and expense) of those parties while their agents seize property, all without any inquiry into the…