Facts
On 24 July 1972, installer Aebi installed a gas water heater in Carmen Gabriele's kitchen. On 31 January 1973, Aebi declared this installation to the gas service of the city of Bern, personally handing the declaration to Zahnd, an employee of the service. However, Zahnd did not forward this declaration to the inspection service, so no inspection was carried out. On 24 July 1973, Carmen Gabriele found her brother Salvatore Gabriele deceased in the bedroom, due to carbon monoxide poisoning from the defective water heater. Aebi was found guilty of negligent homicide and endangerment by toxic gases. Zahnd was found guilty of negligent homicide. Zahnd filed an appeal for nullity, requesting acquittal.Considerations
The SCC considers that to establish a natural causal link in a case of omission, the omitted act must have certainly or with near certainty prevented the occurrence of the result prohibited by criminal law. It is not enough that the omitted act could very likely have prevented the result. In this case, the cantonal court found that the gas service would have…