State v. Rullestad

• Citation: 259 Iowa 209,143 N.W.2d 278
• Decision Date: 14 June 1966
• Docket Number: No. 52018,52018
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Gerald Gene RULLESTAD, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 278

143 N.W.2d 278

259 Iowa 209

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Gerald Gene RULLESTAD, Appellant.

No. 52018.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 14, 1966.

Rehearing Denied July 13, 1966.

C. W. Maurer and James A. Brewer, Ames, for appellant.

Lawrence F. Scalise, Atty. Gen., Don R. Bennett, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charles Vanderbur, County Atty., and John Vasey, Asst. County Atty., for appellee.

THORNTON, Justice.

Defendant was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, committed while operating his motor vehicle while intoxicated. He appeals, urging for reversal the instructions bearing on proximate cause were misleading and confusing and that a statement made by him to an investigating highway patrolman was inadmissible under section 321.271, Code, 1962, which provides in part, 'the written report shall be without prejudice to the individual so reporting.'

The tragic accident occurred about 7:00 p.m. October 28, 1964. The decedent was driving west on Garden Road in Story County toward Highway 69. On reaching the highway he turned north. After he traveled north about 100 feet he was struck from the rear by defendant's northbound car. Decedent's car was thrown some 125 feet into the east ditch, he received injuries from which he died within three hours. The evidence shows the view at the intersection of Garden Road of cars approaching from the south on Highway 69 was poor due to two hills just sourth of the intersection. The evidence shows defendant was intoxicated before and after the collision.

I In State v. Kellison, 233 Iowa 1274, 11 N.W.2d 371, we held it was not necessary to show wanton and reckless indifference to the safety of others in addition to showing the death was caused by drunken driving in violation of section 5022.02, Code, 1939, now section 321.281, Code, 1962. We there held, [259 Iowa 212] page 1278 of 233 Iowa, page 373 of 11 N.W.2d, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated in violation of a criminal statute is not merely malum prohibitum, it is malum in se, wrong in itself, and is clearly an unlawful act within the definition of manslaughter.

However, we did not there hold it was unnecessary to show a direct causal connection between the defendant's drunken driving (we there, as we do here, used the term 'drunken driving' as the equivalent of 'operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated') and the decedent's death. If anything, we held then, as we do now, that to sustain a conviction for manslaughter by drunken driving it is necessary to show a direct causal connection between defendant's drunken driving and decedent's death. In this connection in Kellison we said, page 1276 of 233 Iowa, page 373 of 11 N.W.2d, 'To cause the death of another by the drunken driving of an automobile in violation on a criminal statute is itself manslaughter.' And at page 1279 of 233 Iowa, page 374 of 11 N.W.2d:

'Defendant does not seek to sustain the trial court's ruling by the contention that drunken driving was not the proximate cause of Strom's death. This does not appear to have been urged in support of the motion to direct, nor was the ruling placed on that ground. We may say, however, that the jury could have found that death was caused by drunken driving. * * * We are not justified in holding as a matter of law that there was no direct causal connection between defendant's drunken driving and Strom's death.'

It is implicit in the above statements that to sustain a manslaughter conviction in this type of case it is necessary to show a direct causal connection between defendant's drunken driving and the death, and we now so hold. As having some bearing, see State v. Richardson, 216 Iowa 809, 249 N.W. 211; State v. Graff, 228 Iowa 159, 290 N.W. 97; State v. Warner, 157 Iowa 111, 137 N.W. 466; 'Homicide by Motor Vehicle--A Survey and Proposal,' 44 I.L.R. 558, 567; People v. Goodale, 33 Cal.App.2d 80, 91 P.2d 163; State v. Capps, 111 Utah 189, 176 P.2d 873; Cutshall v. State, 191 Miss. 764, 4 So.2d 289; State v. Mundy, 243 N.C. 149, 90 S.E.2d 312; Commonwealth v. Root, 403 Pa. 571, 170 A.2d 310, 82 A.L.R.2d 452; Long v. State, 152 Tex.Cr. 356, 214 S.W.2d 303; and McWhirter v. State, 147 Tex.Cr. 268, 180 S.W.2d 364.

II. Appellant contends Instructions 5, 6, 7 and 14 are conflicting and confusing. There is an inconsistency in Instruction No. 7, and to some degree Instruction No. 14 is confusing, but when read with Instruction No. 15 which refers to No. 14 we fail to find prejudicial error.

Instruction No. 5, first attacked, sets out the elements the State must prove to sustain a conviction: 1, defendant was driving the car in Story County; 2, the defendant was then intoxicated; 3, that as a result of said operation decedent was killed; and 4, 'That the act of the defendant as charged was the proximate cause of said injury and death.' The information set out in Instruction No. 1 clearly sets out that defendant was charged with manslaughter committed by defendant in that he did while intoxicated operate a motor vehicle upon a public highway and did collide with an automobile opreated by decedent, which collision caused the death. It is defendant's complaint that paragraph four of Instruction No. 5 does not clearly refer to the act of defendant of operating the motor vehicle while intoxicated. On the face of it the complaint is hypercritical. No one other than a defense lawyer could read Instruction No. 5 and the information as stated in Instruction No. 1 and conclude the act of the defendant as used in paragraph four did not refer to operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. That is what the information and instruction are about.

III. Complaint is made of Instructions 6 and 7, both definitions of manslaughter, because they omit the element of proximate cause. Instruction No. 6 does contain the element of causation and is not vulnerable to the attack on it. Instruction No. 7, a second definition, was wholly unnecessary but we are not convinced it was prejudicial error. It does not contain an element of causation, but it follows Instructions 5 and 6 that definitely do contain such. And the instruction does not purport to set out what is necessary for the State to prove, or the jury is required to find before a verdict of guilty can be returned, as do Instructions 5, 12, 14 and 15. Instruction No. 5 has been referred to, it does require the State to prove defendant's drunken driving was a proximate cause of decedent's death. Instruction No. 12 clearly and definitely instructs the jury the burden is on the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the collision and death was proximately caused by reason of the intoxication of the defendant in the operation of the automobile he was driving before they were warranted in returning a verdict of guilty. Instruction No. 14 requires the State to prove defendant was intoxicated at the time he struck decedent's car 'and such accident and injury was the proximate cause of his death.' The instruction goes on to define proximate cause. Instruction No. 15 follows immediately, it starts out:

'As I have previously explained to you in Instruction No. 14 the State must prove by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant's operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated was the proximate cause of the accident and resulting death.'

The instruction goes on to explain defendant contends the death was not the result of his intoxication and states defendant contends the death was caused by brake failure, oncoming traffic and the topography of the road. Instruction No. 16 also makes it clear the State must prove defendant's operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated was a proximate cause of the death. We think the misstatement, if such it is, in Instruction No. 14 is fully cured by Instructions Nos. 15 and 16. Reading these instructions as a whole a juror could not think he could convict without first finding defendant's drunken driving was a proximate cause of the death.

An examination of the authorities cited by defendant demonstrates when prejudicial error occurs in conflicting or confusing instructions. The instructions must be on a material point, there must be a misstatement of the applicable law and the instructions must state essential elements the jury is required to find to warrant a conviction in the alternative. If the jury is given a choice to follow between incorrect and correct statements of the law, the instructions are prejudicial and the rule the instructions are to be viewed as a whole has no application. In State v. Glaze, 177 Iowa 457, 460, 159 N.W. 260, in the same instruction the jury was given an alternative to return a verdict of guilty though an essential element be not proven.

In State v. Walker, 192 Iowa 823, 839, 185 N.W. 619, one instruction told the jury four propositions must be proven before a conviction was warranted, in another two propositions. In State v. Schumacher, 195 Iowa 276, 279--281, 191 N.W. 870, two instructions set forth different rules on the effect of the same evidence.

In State v. McCarty, 210 Iowa 173, 177, 230 N.W. 379, in the same instruction in the first sentence the jury was instructed correctly, in the second sentence the jury was instructed to return a verdict of guilty if they found beyond a reasonable doubt certain elements, omitting one, knowledge.

In State v. Baratta, 242 Iowa 1308, 1314--1319, 49 N.W.2d 866, two instructions, numbers 11 and 12, both contained erroneous statements of law relating to the defense of self-defense. The correct rule was stated in part of number 11. The state urged when read as a whole the inaccuracy was remedied. We there held such principle inapplicable. Actually there the operative part of each instruction was erroneous.

In this case Instruction No. 7 did not contain the element of causation but it was only a definitive instruction without setting forth elements to be proved or required findings correctly require findings tive instructions correctly require findings by the...