Court Opinion

ID: 9542769
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:38:26.529862+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:55.726609
License: Public Domain

Hunter, J.
(dissenting) — The defendant in this case stands convicted of a crime which is not on the statute books — failure to more adequately support his children. The statute we are concerned with, RCW 26.20.030, makes it a crime to willfully fail to furnish necessary support for one’s children. The uncontradicted evidence in the record and the trial court’s findings of fact bear out the undisputa-ble fact that the defendant did not earn sufficient income to furnish necessary support for his children, during the period charged in the complaint. This is an absolute defense to the crime of nonsupport under the statute. The defendant has established this defense, on my reading of the record. Moreover, the trial court’s findings of fact confirm this conclusion.
The trial court found, and the record sustains the finding, that the defendant failed to “more adequately support” his children. It then concluded as a matter of law that this fact rendered the defendant guilty of willful nonsupport, presumably aided by the statutory presumption. (RCW 26.20.080 supplies a prima facie presumption of willfulness on a showing that necessary support was not furnished.) The trial court’s findings do not sustain its conclusion of law, that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged, because a showing of inability to furnish necessary support, which is a “legal excuse,” was made and is represented as a fact in the trial court’s own findings.
The evil the legislature was. seeking to cure with this statute is clear. The legislature intended that a parent may be found guilty of a felony if he has the ability to provide *913necessary support for his children and willfully refuses to do so. The legislature did not see fit to address itself to the situation presented by this case, that is, where a parent who lacks the ability to provide necessary support for his children willfully fails to furnish them with more support than the amount he is currently providing. The legislature may decide to enact a statute which would deal with the situation in the instant case, but it has not yet done so.
The presumption of willfulness under RCW 26.20.080, as applied by the majority to the facts of this case, constitutes an unconstitutional deprivation of due process of law. This is because, as the majority reads the statute, the presumption supplies the necessary element of willfulness even though it is factually impossible for the defendant to provide the standard of support called for in the statute. Such application of the presumption eliminates any “ . . .
rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed,” and transgresses the Fourteenth Amendment. United States v. Romano, 382 U.S. 136, 139, 15 L. Ed. 2d 210, 86 Sup. Ct. 279 (1965).
Further, the majority by its construction of the enactment, supra, has made it a crime to be unable to meet one’s financial obligations, in violation of the constitutional prohibition of imprisonment for debt.
I would reverse the trial court and direct that charges against the defendant be dismissed.
Rosellini, J., concurs with Hunter, J.