Causation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Causation - Essay Example For instance, in Empire Jamaica (1955),2 the owners sent a vessel out to sea, and it crashed because the pilot fell asleep. The only negligence that the owners were guilty of were that the officers did not have their licenses. But this had nothing to do with the crash, so, even though there was a negligent act, it was not the cause of the damages. Similarly, in Christopher Andrews v. Barnett Waddingham LLP and RAJ Waddingham3 there was insufficient causation between the negligence of the financial advisors and the loss that was suffered by the claimant. Moreover, there is a general rule in English law that there are certain acts that would break the chain of causation. For instance, the acts of a third party are likely to break the chain of causation.4 This often when the defendant does not have control over the third party's actions, but, if the actions of the third party are foreseeable by the defendant in any way, the chain of causation is not broken.5 While these are torts cases, there are criminal cases as well, and these criminal cases define the boundaries and the contours of causation in the criminal courts. In criminal law, there must be an action (actus reus) combined with the state of mind (mens rea), and the actus reus plus the mens rea must have caused the actual crime.6 Moreover, there might be instances where there is a supervening or intervening cause that would break the chain of causation.7 There are exceptions to this, of course. For instance, there might be a case where somebody does great bodily damage to somebody else, but does not do enough damage to kill the person. But, the person might be a Jehovah's Witness and refuses a blood transfusion. If the transfusion was received, then that person would have lived. The defendant would still be guilty of manslaughter or murder, because of what is known as the ?hin skull rule- this means, generally, that you take the victim as you find him or her.8 At the same time, there are times when an omiss ion might give rise to criminal liability, such that a crime can be heightened if the person does nothing for somebody who was damaged by the criminal defendant.9 For instance, if somebody beats somebody up, and doesn't get medical attention for the person, and the person dies, then that person is guilty of murder or manslaughter.10 Likewise, there is also an issue regarding intervening causation.11 One of the leading cases for this is R v. Cheshire.12 In R v. Cheshire, the appellant attacked and shot a man in a fish and chip shop, and he underwent surgery. When he was in surgery there was a negligent act, in which the doctor could not diagnose the reason why the patient died. The doctor misdiagnosed the reason behind the patient's breathlessness and respiratory obstruction. However, it was found that the only way that the causation would be broken would be if the medical staff was reckless, not merely negligent. Therefore, the defendant in this case was found to be liable for the d eath, because he put the causation into motion with his battery in the first place.13 That said, there can also be a case where the negligence of a third party would break the chain of causation, such that the defendant who put the act into motion would not be negligent for the