Gross negligence manslaughter Flashcards
(7 cards)
Requirements
R v Adomako: D must have owed V a duty of care; D breached that duty of care; the breach caused V’s death; there was an obvious risk of death at the time of D’s breach; the breach was so gross to justify a criminal conviction
A duty of care is owed
R v Wacker: wider than civil law; joint criminal venture between D and V does not undermine D’s liability in criminal law
R v Evans: question of law for the judge to decide
R v Adomako: doctor owes a duty to their patient
R v Holloway: trades e.g. electricity, plumbing
A breach of duty
D’s act fell below the standard expected of a reasonable person
R v Adomako: jury not to consider whether it was reasonable for D himself to act as he did (e.g. exhaustion), but whether he fell below the standards of a reasonable anaesthetist
Causing the death
R v Dalloway: D clearly caused V’s death but it’s a question of whether the negligence caused the death
Serious and obvious risk of death
R v Kuddus: whether a reasonably prudent person in D’s position at the time would be aware of the obvious risk to the class of people to whom D owed a duty
R v Rose: optometrist case; “A mere possibility that an assessment might reveal something life-threatening is not the same as an obvious risk of death”; “it is not appropriate to take into account what the defendant would have known but for his breach of duty”
Grossly negligent
R v Adomako: “conduct of the defendant was so bad in all the circumstances as to amount in their judgment to a criminal act or omission”
R v Sellu: proposed “gross in the sense that it was truly exceptionally bad and was such a departure from the standard that it consequently amounted to it being criminal”
Problems with the Adomako test
Gardner: asking whether someone is tall is problematic because there is no agreed height at which someone becomes tall; this is still not as bad as the Adomako test because at least with tallness we know what we are measuring (height)- the jury was not even given guidance on what criminality is
Quick: punishing acts where people are acting in a professional capacity is inappropriate, people such as doctors are usually acting for good reasons and doing things that are socially useful; punishing individuals may disguise that the employer is to blame (Adomako claimed he had never been properly trained and was exhausted after long hours)
