Court Opinion

ID: 9563419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:39:33.047326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:50.398425
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(dissenting)—I dissent. The majority dismisses appellant’s argument that the trial court erroneously refused to instruct the jury on the issue of negligence, holding that negligence is not in the case and that the issue is whether the killing of Robert L. Reese was excusable or justifiable. By so holding, the majority mistakes and misunderstands a major issue.
The issue is not, as the majority states, whether there is excusable or justifiable homicide in the sense these terms are used in RCW 9.48.160. The issue is whether Officer Larsen was negligent in his determination (1) that a felony, and not a misdemeanor, had in fact been committed, (2) that Reese was guilty of that felony, and (3) that Reese was trying to escape. If Officer Larsen was not negligent at any of these points, then the shooting was justified because no negligence was proven. On the other hand, if the jury found Officer Larsen was negligent in any of the above determinations, appellant should have been allowed to recover.
Excusable and justifiable homicide are statutory defenses which allow certain individuals in given instances to be exempt from a charge of manslaughter or homicide in the first or second degree. This is not a criminal case. As the majority states the nature of the case, it is a wrongful death action. Appellant asks for damages caused by the alleged negligence of Officer Larsen and the City of Seattle.
The majority’s confusion may be due to the fact that the term “justifiable” has been used by our court to describe their holding that there was a nonnegligent shooting by police officers. Coldeen v. Reid, 107 Wash. 508, 182 P. 599 (1919); Johns v. Clark, 138 Wash. 288, 244 P. 729 (1926); Estes v. Brewster Cigar Co., 156 Wash. 465, 287 P. 36 (1930). All of these cases were negligence actions, all dis*390cuss when a police officer is justified in using deadly force, none discuss justifiable homicide in the statutory sense. The statute is not mentioned simply because it is not applicable.
The statutory definitions of justifiable or excusable homicide may be useful by way of analogy in a consideration of whether a police officer has negligently killed another, but they are not directly applicable to a negligence case because those matters considered by a court in a criminal case differ from considerations in an action for negligence.
Specifically, the elements of negligence are (1) the existence of a duty, (2) the breach thereof which was a proximate cause of (3) a resulting injury. Rosendahl v. Lesourd Methodist Church, 68 Wn.2d 180, 412 P.2d 109 (1966); Jurgens v. American Legion, 1 Wn. App. 39, 459 P.2d 79 (1969).
In the instant case, appellant timely requested a set of specific instructions on negligence which included all of the above elements. These instructions were refused, and the instructions actually given do not include an instruction on proximate cause. A jury instruction on negligence cannot be said to be complete where one of the elements of negligence is missing. Upon the timely request of a party, it is error to fail to instruct the jury properly upon an issue which is pleaded and supported by the evidence. Sewell v. MacRae, 52 Wn.2d 103, 323 P.2d 236 (1958).
The complexity of this case, as demonstrated by our widely differing views, makes it illogical to hold that a jury composed of laymen would not be confused by the instructions given. A jury composed of laymen, uninstructed as to the nature of a negligence action as it relates to proximate cause, may have, in an attempt to determine if the shooting was lawful or justified, failed to determine whether the City of Seattle or Officer Larsen was negligent. The refusal to instruct the jury on all elements of negligence is reversible error.
An additional ground for reversal is found in the refusal of the trial court to include plaintiff’s requested instruction No. 5, dealing with police regulations requiring officers to *391be armed at all times. The City of Seattle goes beyond any statutory requirement that policemen be armed and requires its law enforcement personnel to be armed with deadly weapons without regard to the type of activity in which the armed employee might be engaged. The question of whether, by this regulation, the city negligently placed its citizens in danger of predictable miscalculation on the part of officers who have been drinking, was a jury question, as was the issue of whether the negligence of the city, if any, in this regard was a proximate cause of the death of Mr. Reese.
Finley and Stafford, JJ., concur with Utter, J.