Causation Flashcards
Causation
The link between the voluntary act (or omission) and the social harm.
Causation = Actual Cause + Proximate Cause
Actual Cause
“But for” the defendant’s voluntary acts (or omissions), the social harm would not have occurred when it did.
Proximate Cause
A cause that is legally sufficient to find the defendant liable–underlying cause.
Defendant’s conduct must be closely related to the harm it engenders.
MPC - The actual result cannot be “too remote or accidental in its occurrence to have a [just] bearing on the actor’s liability” (§ 2.03 (2) (b)).
Sliding Scale of Foreseeability
MPC adjusts the legal causation foreseeability requirement depending on the severity of the defendant’s actions.
PURPOSELY, KNOWINGLY: Analyzed based on the purpose of defendant
RECKLESS, NEGLIGENT: Analyzed based on the risk of harm
Substantial Factor Test
In limited circumstances.
The defendant’s conduct is the cause-in-fact of the prohibited result if the conduct was a “substantial factor” in bringing about said result (each defendant’s conduct must have been done concurrently and could independently be sufficient for the resulting harm).
Superseding Intervening Cause
When an intervening cause relieves the defendant, who is an actual cause of the social harm, of criminal responsibility for the social harm (based on fairness, etc.)
Proximate Causation Factors (C/L)
Factors for evaluating whether an intervening cause is also a superseding cause that breaks the causal chain:
Foreseeability of the intervening cause
Apparent safety Doctrine
Voluntary, Deliberate, Informed Human Intervention
Intervening Cause Only De Minimis Contribution to Social Harm
Intended Consequences Doctrine
(1) Forseeability
Consider whether intervening cause is responsive vs. coincidental, then whether foreseeable
(2) Apparent Safety Doctrine
A court no longer follows a defendant’s active force once it has reached and stopped at a place of apparent safety.
(3) Voluntary, Deliberate, and Informed Human Intervention
In cases of third party interventions- only ´free, deliberate and informed´ intervention by another mature person can break the causal chain between defendant and the result whether or not that intervention is foreseeable.
(4) De Minimis Contribution
If the defendant’s voluntary act caused minor social harm compared to social harm resulting from a substantial intervening cause, the law will treat the latter as proximate cause of the social harm.
(5) Intended Consequences Doctrine
If a person causes events to come about which obtain his or her desired result, then that person’s actions are still the proximate cause of the result even if the intervening act was independent and unforeseeable.
“Got what she wanted but not how she wanted it”
An exception to the otherwise applied rule of proximate cause.
