Odger's English Common Law

292
MANSLAUGHTER.
purposes ; for by imprisoning him he has deprived him of all chance of
obtaining food from others. 1
On the other hand, if a maidservant who has free control of her actions
and is able to take care of herself, remains in a service where she is starved
and hadly lodged, the mistress will not be criminally responsible for the
consequences ;
there. 2
they are the result of the servant's own conduct in remaining
But the duty that the prisoner neglects must be a duty
which he legally owed to the deceased, or else no prosecution
for manslaughter can follow. Thus, non-interference to pre-
vent a stranger from committing suicide is not indictable.
" If I see a man, who is not under my charge, taking up a
tumbler of poison, I should not become guilty of any crime
by not stopping him. I am under no legal obligation to a
stranger." 3 "To render a person who has the charge of
another criminally responsible for neglect, there must be on the
part of such person a duty arising from the helpless character
of the person who is under control. Such a duty, for instance,
arises in the case of those who have charge of infants, invalids
or lunatics." 4
If a signalman sleeps at his post, and as a result of the -points not having
been changed a fatal collision occurs, he will be held criminally responsible ;
for he owes a duty to the public as well as to his employers, and this duty
he has neglected.
A young unmarried woman being about to be confined returned to the
house of her stepfather and mother, and was confined in the absence of her
stepfather. Her mother took no steps to procure the assistance of a mid-
wife, and in consequence the daughter died in her confinement. There
was no evidence that the mother had the means to pay for the services of a
midwife. It was held that there was no legal duty upon the mother
to call in a midwife, and that she could not therefore be convicted of
manslaughter. 5
The prisoner, a woman of full age and without any means of her own,
lived alone with, and was maintained by, the deceased, her aunt, a woman
of seventy-three. For the last ten days of her life the deceased suffered
from a disease which prevented her from moving or doing anything to
procure assistance. The prisoner did not secure for her the services of any
nurse or medical man, and apparently gave her none of the food which was
sent to the house by tradesmen, thus greatly accelerating her death. It was
held that under these circumstances there was a legal duty upon the
1 R. x. Buggins (1729), 17 St. Tr. 309, 376.
» Per Erie, C. J., in B. v. Smith (1865), L. & C. at p. 625.
8 Per Hawkins, J., in B. v. Paine, The Times, February 25th, 1880.
' Per Blackburn, J., in B. v. Smith (1865), L. & C. at p. 629.
« B. v. Shepherd (1862), 31 L. J. M. C. 102.