Odger's English Common Law

270 HOMICIDE OR CAUSING DEATH.
of such natural causes or rendered him defenceless against
such accident.
Thus a woman, who left her baby in an orchard and covered it with
leaves and it died in consequence of being struck by a kite, was deemed to
have caused its death. 1 Again, where on a winter night the prisoner
knocked a man down and left him lying unconscious and he died from
exposure, it was held that the prisoner caused the death. So where a son
hurried his sick and aged father in cold weather from town to town, and
thereby hastened his death, he was held to have caused his death. 2 Where
a woman with intent to procure abortion caused a child to be born so
prematurely that it could not possibly live, she was held to have caused its
death. 8
If the prisoner caused A. to do an act which causes A.'s
death, he has caused A.'s death, unless, as we have seen, 4
A. was a free agent in the matter.
Thus, if B. makes repeated thrusts at A. with a sword and forces him to
retreat backwards, till he falls over a precipice and is killed, B. has caused
A.'s death. 6 Again, if a man makes a forcible attack on a woman's chastity,
and her only means of escape is to leap from an open window, he is guilty
of murder, if she be killed. 6 So, if A. by violence or threats of violence
compels B. to throw himself into a river, or to leap from a train in motion,
with the result that B. loses his life, A. has caused B.'s death, provided B.
reasonably believed that his life was in danger and saw no other means of
escape. But A.'s liability will depend on whether a man of ordinary self-
control or only a man unreasonably timid would have acted as B. did. 7
On the other hand, if a husband quarrel with his wife and she drown herself
in consequence of the mental worry occasioned by such quarrel, the husband
has not caused her death. So, if A. and B. play cards for high stakes, and
B. is utterly ruined and commits suicide in despair, A. cannot be said to
have caused B.'s death.
That any imprudent conduct on the part of the deceased, or
any honest mistake committed by a properly qualified medical
man employed by him, was the cause of death is immaterial,
if it was the act of the prisoner which reduced the deceased
to such a condition that it was necessary to take some decisive
1 The Harlots Case (1560), Crompton's Justice, 24 ; 1 Hale, 431 ; and see R. v.
Walters (1841), Car. & M. 164.
2 Anon. (1328), Kenny's Select Cases, 92 ; 1 Hale, 431.
s R. v. West (1848), 2 C. & K. 784.
* Ante, p. 267.
5 R. v. Pitts (1842), Car. & M. 284.
« Cf. R. v. Halliday (1889), 61'L. T. 699.
' R. v. Ecans (1812), 2 Russell on Crimes, 7th ed., 666 : followed in R, v. Grimes
(1894), 16 N. S. W. L. R. 209. See R. t. Monks (1870), 72 C. C. C. Sess.. Papers,
424.