Causation

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  • Created by: debbieoxt
  • Created on: 12-05-18 12:02
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  • Causation
    • Factual causation - but for the defendant's actions, would the victim have been harmed/dead?
      • R v White - 'but for' test - his actions were not the factual cause of death so he was not liable.
        • Pagett - 'but for' test - He was the factual cause of her death.
    • Legal causation - Kimsey - the defendant's conduct does not have to be the substantial cause of the harm/death, as long as they are more than a slight or trifling link.
    • Chain of causation - can be broken by the victim's own actions, the actions of a third party and negligent medical treatment
      • Victims own actions
        • Roberts - if the victims actions were reasonably foreseeable, the chain of causation will not be broken. To break it, the victim must do something daft or unexpected that no reasonable person could foresee it.
        • Williams - was the victim's conduct proportionate to the threat? No so the chain was broken.
        • Holland - the victim's refusal of treatment did not break the chain of causation. The victim was not under a duty to accept medical treatment.
      • Actions of a third party
        • Pagett - it was reasonably foreseeable that she would've been shot so the actions of the third party did not break the chain of causation.
      • Negligent medical treatment
        • Smith - negligent medical treatment will not break the chain of causation if the original wound was an operating and substantial cause of death.
        • Cheshire - even if the negligent medical treatment is the immediate cause of death, it will not break the chain of causation unless it is so independent of the defendant;s ations so it renders them insignificant
        • Jordan - the hospital was described as palbably wrong. The doctors knew that he was allergic so it was sufficiently independent to break the chain
        • Malcherek - switching off a life support machine by a doctor doesn't break the chain of causation.
        • Blaue - Lawton LJ ruled that those "who use violence on others must take their victim as they find them."

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