Involuntary Manslaughter

Question 1

Involuntary Manslaughter

Answer 1

• D lacks MR for murder.
• seperate lesser manslaughter offence

3 types (common law):
- constructive/unlawful and dangerous act
- gross negligence
- reckless

Question 2

Constructive/Unlawful and Dangerous Act Manslaughter

Answer 2

• D lacks MR for murder
• offence constructed from less serious crime

TEST:
- unlawful act (base offence) AND
- objectively dangerous, AND
- causes death (normal principles of causation and novus actus interveniens)

Question 3

identification of the unlawful act base for UDAM

Answer 3

• act must be unlawful in criminal sense (R v Lamb)
• criminal act which requires subjective MR (more than negligence) (Andrews v DPP)
• all elements of base offence must be satisfied AR, and MR (R v Lamb)
• D must have had intent to complete base offence (Lowe)

Question 4

test, scope.

Dangerous Act

Answer 4

objective test:
- unlawful act must be such that all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise it as leading to some risk of harm (not nessesarily serious)
- only needs to be risk of foreseeable harm (Carey)
- base offence does not need to be aimed at V but risk of harm must be to V (A-G Ref No 3 of 1994)

• thin skull rule does not apply to UDAM. (Dawson) (case where armed robbery behind bullet proof glass, but teller had weak heart - considered wrong to include facts known to jury but not reasonable bystander).

Question 5

what is required

Gross Negligence Manslaughter:

Answer 5

death = result of grossly negligent (otherwise lawful) act or omission
- no conscious choice to cause harm
- eg: medical error, failure to care for child.
- only applies to death.

REQUIRES:
- Duty of Care
- Breach of the duty of care
- breach causing V’s death.

Question 6

where does it arise, when is it breached.

Duty of Care:

Answer 6

• no general duty of care
• duty can arise from contract of employment** (r v pittwood)**

DUTY CAN ARISE:
-from act of D where requirements of foreseeability, proximity, fairness, justive and reasonableness establish such a duty (Donoghue v Stevenson) - however no duty betwen parties in criminal enterprises (Wacker)
- legal concept, for judge to decide (Evans)

BREACH of DUTY: objective test:

• can be act or omission
• where duty of care is established, Whether D acted as reasonable person would in their position. (objective test)
• must be obvious foreseeable risk to reasonable person. (irrelevant if D appreciated risk)
• if D had special skills then will be judged against reasonable person with those skills.
• failure to meet duty = breach

Question 7

Breach of Duty causing V’s Death

Answer 7

normal rules of causation (but-for)
- remember this includes omission to act where duty arises.

• P must prove that V would have lived (Broughton)

Question 8

Serious and Obvious Risk

Answer 8

R v Rose was not enough because she examined the wrong scans and thus not enough to find GNM because it lacked serious and obvious risk of death

• cause of D’s lack of knwoledge resulting from D’s own breach of duty was irrelevant.

Question 9

determining if negligence was ‘gross’

Answer 9

• must show ‘such disregard for life and safety of others as to amount to a crime against the state and conduct deserving punishment’ (Bateman)

Question 10

Reckless Manslaughter

Answer 10

usually just dealth with as UDAM/ or GNM
- where D subjectively foresees risk of death or serious injury but does not meet Woollin TEST for murder.

• where D kills by omission (cannot be UDAM) OR no objective forseight of risk (not GNM)