State v. White
528 A.2d 811, 204 Conn. 410, 1987 Conn. LEXIS 927 (1987)
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Rule of Law:
A person cannot be convicted of criminally negligent homicide for an omission, such as failing to install smoke detectors, unless there is a specific statutory or common law duty to act. An administrative regulation is invalid and cannot create such a duty if it exceeds the scope of its enabling statute.
Facts:
- Gordon L. White owned a three-family residential building in New Britain, Connecticut.
- In May 1982, after being notified by the East Hartford fire marshal, White installed required smoke detectors in a different apartment building he owned in that town.
- White later undertook renovations on his New Britain property but did not obtain building permits for the work.
- The New Britain building did not have any smoke detectors installed.
- On December 25, 1982, a fire caused by an electrical overload broke out in the second-floor apartment of the New Britain building.
- The fire smoldered for several hours, filling the apartment with thick smoke.
- The three occupants of the second-floor apartment, Maryann Jones and her two young children, died from smoke inhalation.
- An expert testified that had smoke detectors been installed, the occupants would have been alerted in time to escape.
Procedural Posture:
- Gordon L. White was charged in a substitute information with three counts of criminally negligent homicide and three counts of failing to provide a smoke detector.
- Following a jury trial in the Connecticut state trial court, White was found guilty on all six counts.
- The trial court denied White's post-trial motions for judgment of acquittal and in arrest of judgment.
- White appealed the judgment of conviction to the Supreme Court of Connecticut.
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Issue:
Does a landlord's failure to install smoke detectors, in the absence of a specific statutory or common law duty, constitute a gross deviation from the standard of care sufficient to support a conviction for criminally negligent homicide?
Opinions:
Majority - Santaniello, J.
No. A landlord's failure to install smoke detectors cannot support a conviction for criminally negligent homicide without an underlying statutory or common law duty to act. To be guilty of criminally negligent homicide, the state must prove the defendant had a duty, grossly deviated from that duty's standard of conduct, and thereby proximately caused a death. The court found White had no such duty. First, there was no statutory duty because the enabling statute (§ 29-292) only mandated the fire safety code to require smoke detectors in multi-family buildings with building permits issued on or after October 1, 1976. The fire safety code's broader requirement for all such buildings exceeded this statutory authority and was thus inapplicable to White's building, for which no such permit was proven to exist. Second, the court found no common law duty for a landlord to install fire warning systems like smoke detectors. Because liability for criminal negligence based on an omission presupposes a duty to act, and White had no legal duty, he could not be convicted for his failure to install the detectors.
Analysis:
This decision reinforces the fundamental principle that criminal liability for an omission requires a pre-existing legal duty. It demonstrates a strict construction of penal statutes and administrative regulations, limiting agency power to the express terms of legislative mandates. The court's holding prevents prosecutors from bootstrapping criminal liability for omissions onto general negligence standards without a specific duty established by statute or common law. This case serves as a crucial precedent distinguishing between moral or social expectations and legally enforceable duties, particularly in the context of landlord-tenant safety obligations and criminal law.
