Causation Flashcards
For causation between ∆’s act and the harm suffered:
∆ actions have to be both:
- the actual cause AND
- proximate cause of the specified criminal result.
Actual cause + proximate cause = legal cause
Actual cause
(cause-in-fact)
3 tests
- But For
- Substantial Factor
- Acceleration
But For Test
If criminal result would not have occured but for ∆’s act or conduct, then ∆’s act is the actual cause of the criminal result
Substantial Factor Test
- Where there are multiple cause or parties responsible for the criminal result,
- ∆ is responsible if his act was a
- substantial factor causing the criminal result
Acceleration Test
- When ∆’s conduct speeds up an inevitable death,
- ∆ is considered an actual cause of death
- because he “accelerated” an inevitable death
*this only applies to homicide
Proximate Cause
- Promixate cause is established when
- the harm produced by ∆’s cause in fact
- was within the objectively foreseeable range of objective possibility
***The key is forseeability. If forseeable = proximate cause
What result if victim has pre-existing conditions or unknown special sensitivies?
∆’s conduct is a proximate cause of the harm
“You take the plaintiff as you find them”
What is an intervening cause?
An other force the combines with ∆’s act to bring about the harm
Superseding intervening cause
Relieves ∆’s of liability, thus braking the chain of proximate cause
When does an intervening cause not break chain of proximate cause
When it was foreseeable
Dependent intervening
cause will supersede the defendant’s act only when it is a totally abnormal response to the defendant’s act
Independent intervening cause
will normally supersede the defendant’s act, except when the independent intervening force was foreseeable
