Class 7 Causation Flashcards
What is causation?
The casual relationship between conduct and the result
What is causation for homicide?
a person commits homicide when, directly or indirectly, by any means, he CAUSES the death of a human being
Does causation have to be established in both fact and law??
Yes.
What is Factual causation?
Requires an inquiry into how the victim came to his or her death, in a medical, mechanical, or physical sense, and the contribution of the accused to that result. ( i.e. But for the act, would death have arisen?)
What is Legal Causation?
Legal causation concerns the accused’s responsibility in law and is informed by legal considerations such as the wording of the offence and principles of interpretation.
The Smithers case was about two people fought and his body malfunctioned and died.
What is the Smithers test?
(Thin Skull Rule)
The Smithers test for causation applied to all types of homicide – murder and manslaughter (not first degree murder)
An action has to be a contributing cause outside of the de minimums range to be deemed a cause of the result. Thus, the unlawful act remains the legal cause of death even where the act by itself would not have caused death as long as it was beyond de minimus
THIN SKULL RULE.
What is the harbottle test?
Brutal sexual assault cause resulting in death. This created the SUBSTANTIAL CAUSE TEST FOR FIRST-DEGREE MURDER.
substantial and integral cause of death is needed to use the harbottle test for First degree murder (causation)
What about an action that accelerates death?
This counts as causation.
But what about second degree murder? What causation standard should apply?
The smithers test
What was the Nette case? What change did this case have on the Smithers case?
“significant contributing case” instead of “contributing cause outside the de minimus range.
Also reaffirmed harbottle only applies to first degree murder.
What was the Talbot case? Case where the guy was kicked twice and issue was whether first or second kick killed. What did the court say?
The issue was whether death was caused by the initial blow or a subsequent kick
Court reviews factual and legal causation
Crown has to prove causation beyond a reasonable doubt (i.e. that the kick was a contributing cause of death – in this case a significant contributing cause)
A contributing cause can be a cause that exacerbates an existing fatal condition, thereby accelerating death
What was the F. (D.L.) Case? It is about the Smithers case.
Example of the Smithers test being applied to something other than murder.
What was the Maybin Case? A bouncer intervened and killed someone. so what?
Issue: Was the bouncer’s conduct an intervening event that disrupted the chain of causation?
There are 2 different analytical approaches to reconciling the accused’s culpability and the connection between acts and death
Both the “reasonable foreseeability” and the “intentional, independent act” approach may be useful in assessing legal causation depending on the specific factual matrix.
These approaches grapple with the issue of the moral connection between the accused’s acts and the death; they acknowledge that an intervening act that is reasonably foreseeable to the accused may well not break the chain of causation, and that an independent and intentional act by a third party may in some cases make it unfair to hold the accused responsible. These approaches may be useful tools depending upon the factual context.
Reasonably foreseeable two part test
1) If the intervening act is a direct response or directly linked to the accused actions and does not by its nature overwhelm the original actions.
2) Actions must flow from the act of the accused for it to be reasonably foreseeable.
Causation Summary WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW? EXPLAIN
Smithers test, net test, harbottle test,
Criminal responsibility for causation must be established in both fact and law:
Factual causation requires an inquiry into how the victim came to his or her death in a medical mechanical or physical sense.
Legal causation concerns the accused responsibility in law and is informed by legal considerations such as the wording of the offences.
