Opinion ID: 1393440
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Criminal Liability for a Failure to Act

Text: (1) Section 368(a) purportedly reaches two categories of offenders: (1) any person who willfully causes or permits an elder to suffer, or who directly inflicts, unjustifiable pain or mental suffering on any elder, and (2) the elder's caretaker or custodian who willfully causes or permits injury to his or her charge, or who willfully causes or permits the elder to be placed in a dangerous situation. The statute may be applied to a wide range of abusive situations, including within its scope active, assaultive conduct, as well as passive forms of abuse, such as extreme neglect. (Cf. People v. Smith (1984) 35 Cal.3d 798, 806 [201 Cal. Rptr. 311, 678 P.2d 886] [construing identical language in felony child abuse statute].) (2a) Defendant here was charged under section 368(a) with willfully permitting her elder father to suffer the infliction of unjustifiable pain and mental suffering. It was thus her failure to act, i.e., her failure to prevent the infliction of abuse on her father, that created the potential for her criminal liability under the statute. [6] (3) Unlike the imposition of criminal penalties for certain positive acts, which is based on the statutory proscription of such conduct, when an individual's criminal liability is based on the failure to act, it is well established that he or she must first be under an existing legal duty to take positive action. (See Barber v. Superior Court (1983) 147 Cal. App.3d 1006, 1017 [195 Cal. Rptr. 484, 47 A.L.R.4th 1]; 1 Witkin & Epstein, Cal. Criminal Law (2d ed. 1988) Elements of Crime, § 115, pp. 135-136; Perkins & Boyce, Criminal Law (3d ed. 1982) Imputability, p. 660, and cases cited; see also Beale, The Proximate Consequences of an Act (1920) 33 Harv. L.Rev. 633, 637 [The non-action of one who has no legal duty to act is nothing.].) A legal duty to act is often imposed by the express provisions of a criminal statute itself. (See 1 Witkin & Epstein, Cal. Criminal Law, supra, Elements of Crime, § 115, p. 136; see also LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law (2d ed. 1986) § 3.3, p. 203.) Welfare and Institutions Code section 15630 provides an example. That statute specifically requires care custodians, health practitioners, adult protective services employees, and local law enforcement agencies to report physical abuse of elders and dependent adults. Those subject to the statutory duty to report who fail to do so face criminal liability. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 15634, subd. (d).) Notably, the statutory scheme encourages any person who knows or suspects that an elder or dependent adult has been the victim of abuse to report the abuse, but does not appear to impose the legal duty to do so. (See Welf. & Inst. Code, § 15631, subd. (a) [Any ... person ... may report.... (Italics added.)].) When a criminal statute does not set forth a legal duty to act by its express terms, liability for a failure to act must be premised on the existence of a duty found elsewhere. (See LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, supra, § 3.3, p. 203.) A criminal statute may thus incorporate a duty imposed by another criminal or civil statute. ( Ibid. ) In Williams v. Garcetti (1993) 5 Cal.4th 561 [20 Cal. Rptr.2d 341, 853 P.2d 507], for example, we concluded that the language of section 272, making parents criminally liable if they fail to exercise reasonable care, supervision, protection, and control over their children, incorporated the definitions and limits of parental duties that have long been a part of California's dependency and tort law. ( Williams v. Garcetti, supra, 5 Cal.4th at pp. 570, 572; see also People v. Glenn (1985) 164 Cal. App.3d 736, 739 [211 Cal. Rptr. 547] [section 1202.4's lack of provisions for enforcing the defendant's payment of restitution to victim does not render statute unconstitutionally vague; enforcement provisions found within various Government Code sections].) A criminal statute may also embody a common law duty based on the legal relationship between the defendant and the victim, such as that imposed on parents to care for and protect their minor children. (LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, supra, § 3.3, pp. 203-204; see, e.g., People v. Burden (1977) 72 Cal. App.3d 603 [140 Cal. Rptr. 282] [murder defendant father under common law duty to care for young son].) Similarly, other special relationships may give rise to a duty to act. (LaFave & Scott, supra, § 3.3, pp. 205-207; 1 Witkin & Epstein, Cal. Criminal Law, supra, Elements of Crime, § 115, p. 136.) Thus, in People v. Oliver (1989) 210 Cal. App.3d 138 [258 Cal. Rptr. 138], the court relied on the existence of a special relationship recognized in California civil cases and the Restatement Second of Torts to affirm the defendant's conviction of involuntary manslaughter for her failure to seek medical aid for the victim, a man she had met at a bar and brought to her home who later died of a heroin overdose. ( People v. Oliver, supra, 210 Cal. App.3d at pp. 148-149 [defendant's taking charge of person unable to prevent harm to himself, and her conduct creating risk of injury to victim, gave rise to duty to act].) (2b) Accordingly, in order for criminal liability to attach under section 368(a) for willfully permitting the infliction of physical pain or mental suffering on an elder, a defendant must first be under a legal duty to act. Whether the statute adequately denotes the class of persons who owe such a duty is the focus of the constitutional question presented here.