Commonwealth v. Nace

OPINION OF THE COURT

PAPADAKOS, Justice.

We granted limited review in this case to examine whether the police exceeded the proper scope of an inventory-search in examining an address book seized from Appellant pursuant to Commonwealth v. Scott, 469 Pa. 258, 365 A.2d 140 (1976), and South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976). In Scott we upheld the admissibility of incriminating evidence found in a warrantless inventory search of an impounded automobile and further determined that such searches are reasonable where they do not go beyond the formalities of an…