Causation Flashcards
(17 cards)
What are the 2 types of causation?
Factual causation and legal causation.
What is factual causation?
Showing that the defendant’s actions were the actual cause of the consequence.
What test is used for factual causation?
The ‘but for’ test.
What does the but for test ask?
“But for the defendant’s actions, would the result have happened?”
What case is used for factual causation?
R v White.
Describe the R v White case.
Defendant put cyanide in his mother’s lemonade, but she died from a heart attack.
No factual causation.
What is legal causation?
When the defendant’s act must be a substantive and operative cause of the harm, with no intervening act breaking the chain of causation.
What case is used for legal causation?
R v Smith.
Describe the R v Smith case.
After a soldier was stabbed, he was dropped twice and received poor treatment
Stab wound was the substantial cause so chain of causation was not broken.
When does medical negligence break the chain of causation?
If the treatment is ‘palpably wrong’.
What case is used for medical negligence breaking the chain of causation?
R v Jordan.
Describe the R v Jordan case.
Victim’s stab wounds were almost healed but he died from antibiotics.
Defendant not liable for victim’s death.
What is the ‘thin skull’ rule?
When the defendant must take their victim as they find them.
What case is used for the thin skull rule in criminal law?
R v Blaue.
Describe the R v Blaue case.
Woman refused blood transfusion for religious reasons and died.
Defendant was still liable.
When do the victim’s own actions not break the chain of causation?
If they were reasonably foreseeable by an ordinary person.
What case involves the victim’s own actions not breaking the chain of causation?
R v Roberts.
