Court Opinion

ID: 9579775
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:58:27.401114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:45.492607
License: Public Domain

Lewis, Justice
(dissenting).
Otherwise agreeing with opinion of Justice Brailsford, I am in disagreement with the conclusion reached with reference to the refusal of the trial judge to give the requested charge as to the law relating to an invitee.
*25The basic issue in the trial of the defendant was whether or not he shot the deceased in self defense. The homicide occurred in the home of the deceased and the defendant, under his testimony, was an invitee therein. Under the testimony of the defendant, he was there to discuss with the deceased the question of bringing to an end the illicit relationship between them, which had extended over a period of several years. She wanted him to spend the night with her and told him that he was not going to leave. When the defendant persisted in his intentions to leave, the deceased raised the pistol which she held in her hand and made the statement, “you son of a bitch, I’m going to kill you.” At that time, the defendant pulled his pistol, which he customarily carried as a constable, and shot her twice. The defendant further testified that he shot the deceased to save his own life, that he knew she would kill him.
Under the facts most favorable to the defendant, he was an invitee in the home of the deceased, had indicated a desire not to remain and was forbidden to leave by her at the point of a gun under circumstances which, he says, placed him in fear for his life.
The issues which arise under a plea of self defense can only be properly determined by a proper understanding of the legal rights of the parties at the time. It is therefore, the duty of the trial judge, where the plea of self defense is involved, to appropriately define for the jury the respective legal rights of the parties at the time and place of the occurrence under inquiry.
Under the testimony most favorable to the defendant, he had a right to have the jury pass upon his defense in the light of his claimed status as an invitee or guest in the home of the deceased. As an invitee, he was entitled to notice to leave the home if his presence was no longer desired by the owner and also the right to peaceably depart without interference by the owner, if he desired to do so of his own volition, as he says that he did. Such an instruction would have defined *26the rights of the defendant as an invitee and, if the jury concluded that he occupied such status at the time, would have permitted his actions to be judged in the light of such principles. The legal right of the parties at the time vitally affect the determination of the issues as to the duty to retreat, whether the shooting was necessary, and whether, being where he had a right to be, he was without fault in bringing on the difficulty.
It is correctly stated that there is no evidence in this record that the deceased was engaged in any attempt to eject the defendant from her home at the time of the homicide. Since the deceased was not so engaged at the time, it is reasoned that there was no duty on the part of the court to instruct the jury as to the legal right of an invitee to notice to leave before he is assaulted by the owner of the premises. I do not understand the issue here to be so narrowly drawn. The trial judge instructed the jury that “where two parties are involved in an altercation in the home of one of the parties to the altercation, the person in his or her own home is under no obligation to retreat but the other party is under the obligation to retreat unless it reasonably appeared that his or her danger would be increased thereby.” The foregoing is the only instruction given to the jury relative to the respective rights of the parties on the premises under the plea of self defense. The instructions of the court left the jury without guide by which to determine whether the defendant, if an invitee, was where he had a right to be and whether the defendant had a right as an invitee to expect to be free from assault from the deceased until ordered to leave.
In State v. McIntosh, 40 S. C. 349, 18 S. E. 1033, the occupant of the home killed an invitee. No notice to leave was given by the owner before the homicide. The following from that case emphasizes the importance attached to the status of the parties in determining their respective rights under the plea of self defense:
*27“For the judge, while fully recognizing the sacredness of one’s home, and the right of the owner to protect it from all intruders, very properly drew a distinction between a case of a trespasser intruding himself into the dwelling house of another, and a case in which one enters the house of another by the invitation of the owner. For here the undisputed evidence was that the deceased was urgently invited to. the house of the prisoner for the purpose of engaging in a Christmas frolic, and that they did engage in a drunken debauch, which doubtless gave rise to the difficulty that terminated in bloodshed. It does not seem to us that the defendant can claim anything from that well-recognized right which allows one to protect his house, where his invited guest was shot down in his own house, without any notice, even to leave.”
The right of an invitee to be free from assault by the host, until ordered to leave or his conduct deprived him of the right to remain, vitally affected the issue as to whether the defendant was at fault in bringing on the difficulty. The question was not whether the deceased should have given notice to the defendant to leave as justifying her actions in allegedly assaulting the defendant, but whether the defendant has a right to be in the home as an invitee until ordered to leave. The instructions sought would have given the jury a guide by which to determine this vital question. The failure to do so was prejudicial error.
I would reverse the judgment of the lower court and remand for a new trial.