UR INE TROUBLE

 BOSTON — The Massachusetts Court of Appeals vacated a prisoner’s guilty plea for committing vandalism with a filthy or noxious substance; he had urinated through the door of his jail cell. A recent case established the precedent that urine is not a noxious or filthy substance.

https://www.courthousenews.com/urine-trouble/

For further details:

In Commonwealth v. Narvaez, decided Tuesday by the Massachusetts high court, the defendant had allegedly deliberately "urinated on the floor both inside and outside of [his jail] cell":

Based on the location of the toilet in the cell, the officer stated that "it [was] apparent that [the defendant] purposely urinated through the cell bars on to the floor outside the cell." The urine had "seeped into the cracks between the floor tiles, potentially causing permanent damage to the sub floor beneath." Because urine, like other bodily fluids, can carry potentially dangerous bacteria and viruses, police hired a cleanup company specializing in cleaning hazardous fluids and spills to clean the defendant's cell.

He was prosecuted for vandalizing a building with a "noxious or filthy substance"

But the court concluded urine didn't qualify:

The term "other noxious or filthy substance" is not defined in the statute. Therefore, we first consider the plain and ordinary meaning of the phrase. "Noxious" is defined as "[h]armful to [one's] health," or "injurious." The term "filthy" is defined as "[c]overed or smeared with filth" and "disgustingly dirty." The Commonwealth contends that where urine so obviously is "disgustingly dirty," our inquiry into the meaning of the term "other noxious or filthy substance" ought to end there. We disagree.

  [But w]hat is "noxious," "filthy," "harmful to one's health," or "disgustingly dirty" is equivocal and extremely fact dependent, having no "fixed and rigid signification." It is a term that may have "different meanings dependent upon contemporary conditions, the connection in which it is used, and the result intended to be accomplished." Therefore, the term "other noxious or filthy substance" lends itself to ambiguity.

Yup, there is more:

https://reason.com/volokh/2022/11/29/urine-isnt-a-noxious-or-filthy-substance-for-purposes-of-1851-massachusetts-vandalism-law/

Contains a lot of legalese.






(hope this thread doesn't piss you off) 




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