Jones v. United States

1962

Court: CD Circuit Court of Appeals
Facts: Defendant was a neglectful caretaker of another woman's children. One of them died of malnutrition.
Posture: Guilty of involuntary manslaughter at trial.
Issue: Should the jury have been instructed about finding a legal duty of care?
Holding: Yes. A legal duty of care is a critical element of this crime. Remanded.
Rule: A neglected duty must be a legal duty, not just a moral duty, and failure to perform the duty must be the immediate and direct cause of death.

There are four situations in which a failure to act is a breach of legal duty:

  1. Duty imposed by statute
  2. Certain relationship status
  3. Duty entered into by contract
  4. Voluntarily assumption of care and seclusion of the other to the extent that others would not be able to render aid
Reasoning: There are conflicts in the evidence about items 3 and 4 above, so a jury should have had to decide. There was no instruction to the juty, so therefore they didn't decide. That's error.
Dicta: Cases involving duty to act are rare.