Commonwealth v. Welansky case brief

 

• Commonwealth v. Welansky- (p 425) ∆ owned a Boston nightclub. Access was limited with only one main door, and the few emergency exits were either blocked or locked so that people could not leave w/o paying. One night a fire broke out and quickly spread, many died b/c they could not escape.

• Manslaughter conviction may be based on an omission
• Involuntary manslaughter consists of wanton or reckless conduct resulting in a homicide. Where one has a duty to act, such recklessness may exist in the failure to perform a duty.
  • ∆ was under duty to provide safety for his patrons.
  • Since he did not mere negligence turned into recklessness, esp. since there were so may safety hazards
• “wanton and reckless” standard implies something worse that a mere failure to act prudently, yet falls short of intention a conscious disregard of a known risk