## Facts

- Life Care Centers of America, Inc. operated a long-term care nursing home where a resident died after falling down front stairs while attempting to leave in her wheelchair.
- The resident was supposed to wear a security bracelet designed to trigger an alarm and temporarily lock the front doors, but she was not wearing one when she exited.
- A physician had ordered the bracelet; an administrative employee removed the order from the resident’s chart, and it was not reinstated despite awareness among some staff that the resident required the bracelet and had attempted to leave previously.
- A nursing supervisor knew the order had been removed but did not ensure reinstatement.
- A substitute nurse on duty when the resident exited did not know of the bracelet requirement because it was absent from the treatment documentation.
- The prosecution conceded that no individual employee’s conduct met the criminal mens rea required for the charged offenses; each employee’s conduct was, at most, negligent.
- The prosecution nonetheless sought to impose corporate criminal liability by aggregating the knowledge and conduct of multiple employees.

## Issues

1. Whether a corporation may be convicted of involuntary manslaughter by aggregating multiple employees’ negligent actions and knowledge when no single employee acted wantonly or recklessly.
2. Whether a corporation may be convicted of neglect of a long-term care resident by aggregating multiple employees’ actions and knowledge when no single employee acted knowingly and wilfully.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts answered both reported questions “No.”
- A corporation cannot be convicted of involuntary manslaughter based only on aggregated employee negligence absent proof that at least one employee acted with wanton or reckless disregard.
- A corporation cannot be convicted of neglect of a long-term care resident under G.L. c. 265, § 38 based only on aggregated employee knowledge and conduct absent proof that at least one employee acted knowingly and wilfully.
- The proposed aggregation theory could not be used to proceed on the pending indictments.

## Legal Principles

- Corporate criminal liability generally permits imputing an employee’s acts and mens rea to the corporation when the employee acts within the scope of employment and at least in part to benefit the corporation.
- For crimes requiring a particular culpable mental state, the prosecution must prove that at least one corporate agent possessed that mental state; it may not manufacture mens rea by piecing together knowledge and conduct from multiple agents.
- Involuntary manslaughter requires wanton or reckless conduct causing death; negligence alone is insufficient.
- Neglect of a resident under G.L. c. 265, § 38 requires knowing and wilful conduct; negligence does not satisfy the statute.
- Treating aggregated nonculpable conduct as satisfying criminal mens rea raises due process concerns by effectively lowering the statutory culpability requirement.

## Conclusion

Massachusetts law does not allow the prosecution to establish a corporation’s criminal mens rea for involuntary manslaughter or long-term care resident neglect by aggregating multiple employees’ negligent omissions and fragmented knowledge; at least one employee must have committed the offense with the culpable mental state required by the statute.


Commonwealth v. Life Care Ctrs. of Am., Inc., 456 Mass. 826, 926 N.E.2d 206 (Mass. 2010)