Causation

Question 1

General Requirements for Causation

Answer 1

(1) Cause in Fact
(2) Proximate Cause
(3) “Year and a Day” Rule (Common Law)

Question 2

Cause-in-Fact Definition

Answer 2

The defendant’s conduct must be the cause-in-fact of the result; ie., the result would not have occurred “but for” the defendant’s conduct.

Question 3

Proximate Cause definition

Answer 3

The defendant is responsible for all results that occur as a “natural and probable” consequence of his conduct, even if he did not anticipate the precise manner in which they would occur. All such results are proximately causd by the defendant’s act. This chain of proximate causation is broken only by the intervention of a superseding factor.

Question 4

Year and a Day Rule

Answer 4

Common Law requirement: the death of the victim must occur within one year and one day from the infliction of the injury or wound. If it does not occur within this period of time, there can be no proseuction for homicide. The rule has been sharply critized by the US supreme court as “an outdated relic of the common law” and most of the states that have reviewed the rule have abolished it.

Question 5

What are the rules of causation?

Answer 5

(1) Hastening Inevitable Result
(2) Simultaneous Acts
(3) Pre-existing Condition

Question 6

Hastening Inevitable Result Definition

Answer 6

An act that hastens an inevitable result is nevertheless a legal cause of that result.

Question 7

Simultaneous Acts Definition

Answer 7

Simultaneous acts by two or more persons may be considered independently sufficient causes of a single result.

Question 8

Pre-excisting Condition Definition

Answer 8

A victim’s preexisting condition that makes him more suceptible to death does not break the chain of causation; i.e., defendant “takes the victim as he finds him”.