causation- paper 1 Flashcards
Two types of causation
Factual- Establishes the chain of events between D’s actions and V’s consequences
Legal- Were D’s acts still a significant cause of V’s consequence, was the chain of causation broken?
Test for factual causation
“But for test”- but for the actions of the defendant would the victim have suffered the consequences?
Supporting case for factual causation
R v Pagett-
D kidnapped his pregnant girlfriend and used her as a human shield when firing at police. They returned fire and V was killed.
Legal causation: Types of intervening acts
- Acts of the victim
-Acts of a third party
-Acts of God
Supporting case for acts of a third party (and medical)
R v Jordan-
V had almost recovered from a gunshot wound by D. V had allergic reaction to antibiotics, but another doctor ignore these notes and gave him the wrong antibiotics. V had cardiac arrest and doctors pumped his body with 6 times the amount of fluid any human can have. V died.
Legal causation: what do intervening acts have to be to break the chain of causation?
-Unreasonable
-Unforseeable
(medical treatment must be palpably wrong)
One thing that will never break the chain of causation
Any characteristics of the victim that make them more vulnerable or weak.
-physical: allergies, brittle bones
-psychiatric: mental illness, abnormal state of mind
Examples of acts of God
-Tornado
-Earthquake
-Tsunami
-Struck by lightning
Supporting case for acts of a victim
R v Roberts-
D picked up a female hitch hiker and made sexual advances on her, she then jumped from the car and broke her leg.
Supporting case for legal causation
R v Smith-
D and V were fellow soldiers, they got into a fight and D stabbed V with a bayonet and punctured his lung. Medic didn’t know his lung was punctured, saw him struggling to breathe and performed cpr which tore his lung and he died.
Test for legal causation
Operative and substantial cause test-
was D’s conduct a significant cause to the consequence of V. (was the chain of causation broken?)
Supporting case for victim’s peculiarities
R v Blaue-
D stabbed V who was a Jehova’s witness. At the hospital she was told she needed a blood transfusion but she refused it on religious grounds and eventually bled to death.
