R v Pagett - 1983

R v Pagett (1983) 76 Cr App R 279

CAUSATION – NOVUS ACTUS INTERVENIENS 新介入的行为 – SELF DEFENCE

新介入的行为在确定某人对其损害行为所负的责任时，如果其行为与损害结果之间的因果关系链因第三人行为、客观事件或受害人自己的行为的介入而中断，则该人对该损害不负责，除非该损害是其行为的可预见后果。

Facts

The appellant 上诉人 shot at a police officer who was trying to arrest him, and subsequently后来 attempted 尝试 to use a pregnant teenage girl standing nearby as a human shield to defend himself against retaliation 报复 by the officer. The officer returned fire, killing the girl. At trial, the defendant was acquitted 宣判无罪 of murder but convicted 被定罪 of manslaughter, which he appealed.

Issue

The issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the officer’s action in shooting at the defendant constituted 构成 a novus actus interveniens 新介入的行为 such as to break the chain of causation between the defendant’s actions and the death of the victim.

Held

It was held that a neither a reasonable act taken for the purpose of self-preservation 自我保护, nor an act done in the execution of a legal duty, could not constitute a novus actus interveniens for the purposes of the causal chain. The Court suggested that in a homicide case it is rarely necessary to give the jury more than a simple direction on the issue of causation; a direction that the defendant’s act need not be the sole cause 唯一原因 of death is usually sufficient. In this case, the defendant had done two dangerous acts which a sober 清醒 and reasonable person would realise were likely to cause harm, firstly by firing at the officer and secondly by forcing the victim to shield him from return fire. Both of these acts had in fact contributed significantly to the victim’s death. The conviction 定罪 of manslaughter was therefore upheld 被坚持. 

[Source from https://www.lawteacher.net/cases/r-v-pagett.php]