Causation Flashcards
What crimes are concerned with causation?
Result crimes ONLY
Factual causation:
- ) The but-for test - R v White
2. ) Injury caused by D must be more than minimal cause of death
Legal causation
- ) Original injury remained an operative, more than minimal cause of death
- ) Any intervening event was reasonably foreseeable
- ) D must take V as they find them
R v White
Facts: - D put poison in mothers drink intending to kill her but she died shortly after of an unrelated heart condition
Judgment: Not guilty of murder (but of attempted)
L.P: - But for test -> But for the actions of D would v still have died
R v Benge
Facts: -D misread train timetable when taking up sections of a track, train arrived and V was killed
- D contented death could have been avoided if flagmen + train driver weren’t negligent
Judgment: Guilty
L.P: -Doesn’t have to be the only factual cause just the main one
R v Dalloway
Facts: - D was negligently driving a horse and carriage when V ran into the road and was killed
-Even if D was in control could not have stopped to save V
Judgment: Not guilty
L.P: -Blameworthy conduct was NOT the cause of death and the legal cause must be blameworthy
R v Jordan
Facts: - V had almost recovered from stab wounds by D
- Hospital administered anti-biotics fully aware he was allergic and V died
Judgment: D not guilty
L.P: -Original injury was not the operating cause of death
-The supervening event was “palpably wrong”
R v Smith
Facts: - V was stabbed before being carried to the hospital and dropped twice and hospital treatment was thoroughly bad
Judgment: Guilty of constructive manslaughter
L.P: -Stabbing was operative and substantial cause of death
R v Roberts
Facts:- D was driving V home and started making sexual advances
- After V refused advances D drove off at speed and V jumped out sustaining actual bodily harm -> was D the cause?
Judgment: Guilty
L.P: -Victims actions were not daft, not so unexpected that no reasonable man would have acted in the same way
R v Pagett
Facts: - D used his girlfriend as a human shield whilst shooting at police who returned fire and killed V
-D was charged with manslaughter
Judgment: - Guilty
L.P: - Shots fired were for self-preservation
-What happened to V was foreseeable by D
R v Kennedy 2
Facts: - D supplied drugs to V who self adminstered and died
Judgment: Not guilty
L.P: - Voluntary act of victim and D was not legal cause of death
