A person is justified in conduct which would otherwise constitute an offense when such conduct is immediately necessary to avoid an imminent public disaster or serious bodily injury to a person or serious damage to property which is about to occur through no fault of the defendant, and that harm which might reasonably be expected to result from such conduct is less than the harm which the defendant seeks to prevent. SOURCE: M.P.C. § 2.02; *Cal. § 610(b) (1971); Mass. ch. 263, § 40; N.J. § 32-2. COMMENT: Section 7.80 is new, but codified a principle which has been applied by prosecutors in the past. This Section will justify, for example, breaking into a house in order to make a telephone call essential to saving a person’s life or destroying one person’s property in order to prevent a fire from spreading into a densely populated community. This Section supplements any defense which might be otherwise available under this Article.
COL 2026-04-23