Court Opinion

ID: 9535828
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:45:05.417977+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:21.436869
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
dissenting.
The majority opinion holds that in the event the driver of a motor vehicle is negligent in any respect and collides with a pedestrian and death results, the driver is guilty of motor vehicle homicide because he has violated a statute requiring him to use due care in the operation of a motor vehicle.
The motor vehicle homicide section, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-306(1) (Reissue 1979), under which the defendant *687was charged, defines motor vehicle homicide as causing the death of another unintentionally while engaged in the operation of a motor vehicle in violation of the law of the State of Nebraska, or in violation of any city or village ordinance. Any violation is classified a misdemeanor, except that if the proximate cause of the death is the operation of a motor vehicle in violation of the reckless driving, willful reckless driving, or driving under the influence statutes, the motor vehicle homicide is a felony.
The particular statute relied on in this case, and the only statute found to have been violated, is Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-644 (Reissue 1978), which provides: “Notwithstanding the other provisions of sections 39-601 to 39-6,122, every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian upon any roadway and shall give an audible signal when necessary and shall exercise proper precaution upon observing any child or obviously confused or incapacitated person upon a roadway.” The only part of that statute relevant here is the portion which requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian. This is simply a codification of the common law requiring the use of due care.
The problem here is that the majority opinion treats a legislative codification of the common law rule of negligence as creating a separate and distinct statutory criminal liability which can arise from any unspecified breach of the general common law duty to use due care in the operation of a motor vehicle. The clear thrust of the majority opinion is that any driver who fails to see a pedestrian on a roadway, even under very poor conditions of visibility, is guilty of motor vehicle homicide if he collides with the pedestrian and the pedestrian dies as a result. See my dissenting opinion in State v. Otto, 184 Neb. 597, 169 N.W.2d 612 (1969).
Our motor vehicle homicide statute is simply a specialized version of a manslaughter statute applied to the operation of motor vehicles. Where criminal liability *688rests on common law negligence alone, the same principles which apply to manslaughter should also apply to motor vehicle homicide. In manslaughter cases we have consistently held that ordinary negligence is simply not enough to convict someone of manslaughter. “Obviously, it is not any slight breach of duty but rather a gross failure to do what is required of one.” Delay v. Brainard, 182 Neb. 509, 514, 156 N.W.2d 14, 19 (1968). The Legislature may clearly transform specific acts of negligence into appropriate foundation for criminal liability, but not the broad unlimited concept of negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle. See State v. Huffman, 202 Neb. 434, 275 N.W.2d 838 (1979).
The statutory codification of the common law requirement of due care that has been approved in this case requires the use of due care “to avoid colliding with any pedestrian upon any roadway.” If that is a valid legislative pronouncement of a statutory crime, then the Legislature may also extend the statute to require a driver to exercise due care “to avoid colliding with any vehicle lawfully on the roadway.” In such a case, any driver who failed to see another vehicle before a collision would be guilty of motor vehicle homicide if a death resulted from the accident, regardless of the negligence or comparative negligence of the driver of the other vehicle.
We have consistently held that a crime must be defined with sufficient definiteness and there must be ascertainable standards of guilt to inform those subject thereto as to what conduct will render them liable to punishment. The dividing line between what is lawful and unlawful cannot be left to conjecture. See State v. Adams, 180 Neb. 542, 143 N.W.2d 920 (1966).
The conduct of the defendant in the present case did not establish a reckless or careless disregard of or indifference to the rights and lives of other persons. His only violation of law, if there was a violation, was that he failed to see a pedestrian, who was not in a crosswalk but in the middle of a multilane street under *689conditions of poor visibility. Obviously, the negligence or comparative negligence of the pedestrian makes no difference whatever.
The majority opinion holds that any breach of the common law duty to use due care in the operation of a motor vehicle is sufficient to convict the operator of motor vehicle homicide if the vehicle collides with a pedestrian and death results. This has not been and should not be the law. As interpreted by the majority, § 39-644 is clearly unconstitutional. In my opinion the conviction should have been reversed.