Court Opinion

ID: 9673115
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:06:26.068249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:20.269532
License: Public Domain

PER CURIAM.
In his motion for rehearing or for transfer to the Court en Banc appellant insists that our opinion herein conflicts with, but does not overrule, earlier cases which considered the question of culpable negligence in manslaughter cases. Various cases are cited and discussed, but he points particularly to State v. Ruffin, 344 Mo. 301, 126 S.W.2d 218.
Ruffin did not involve and did not even discuss any instruction. It was reversed and remanded for error in the admission of testimony. The court considered, but did not decide finally, whether the state made a submissible case. It discussed culpability and correctly stated that this was not to be measured by whether the defendant exercised the highest degree of care according to the standard established by the Motor Vehicle Act. Rather, the court held it was to be determined on the basis of what the manslaughter statute contemplated. In that connection, the court did use the language “a reasonably careful and prudent person” in making reference to the fact that the standard was what is contemplated by the manslaughter statute.
An instruction defining “culpable negligence” in a manslaughter case should tell the jury that the term means either the doing of, or the omission to do, an act which shows on the part of a person a careless or reckless disregard for human life or limb. It is not necessary or desirable in that instruction to use the terms “highest degree of care” or “what a reasonably careful and prudent person would have done.” The test of culpable negligence is neither of these'. Instead, it is more, namely, whether the defendant has shown a careless or reckless disregard for human life or limb.
We hold that the inclusion of the words “a very careful and prudent person” in Instruction No. 7 was not prejudicial to defendant because it did not place any additional duty of care on him. The subsequent language in the instruction properly submitted the question of whether he had done or failed to do some act showing on his part a careless or reckless disregard for human life or limb.
To the extent that language in State v. Ruffin, supra, or other earlier cases may conflict with what we have said herein and indicate the necessity of including a reference to an ordinarily careful and prudent person in a manslaughter instruction based on culpable negligence, such cases should be disregarded.
Other contentions raised in the motion for rehearing have been considered and are overruled, and the motion for rehearing or to transfer to the Court en Banc is overruled.