Novus Actus Interveniens
Novus Actus Interveniens is a Latin legal term meaning "a new intervening act." It is a concept used in tort law and criminal law to determine whether a defendant should still be held liable for the consequences of their actions when an intervening event occurs.
🔹 Definition:
Novus actus interveniens refers to a new and independent act or event that breaks the chain of causation between the defendant's original act and the final harm suffered by the victim.
🔹 Purpose in Law:
To determine whether the defendant's act is still the legal (proximate) cause of the harm, or whether the new act has become the cause, relieving the defendant of liability.
🔹 When It Applies:
It applies when:
A third party, the victim, or natural events cause a new act.
The act is unforeseeable and independent of the original wrongful act.
The new act breaks the chain of causation ("causa causans").
🔹 Key Requirements:
For an act to be considered a novus actus interveniens, it must:
Be unforeseeable;
Be sufficiently independent of the defendant’s original act;
Cause the final harm without the defendant’s original act still being a significant factor.
🔹 Examples:
🧪 Example in Tort:
A factory negligently leaks chemicals into a river.
Before the pollution causes harm, a tanker ship crashes and spills oil into the same river, killing the fish.
The ship crash may be a novus actus interveniens, breaking the chain of causation from the factory’s act to the damage.
⚖️ Example in Criminal Law:
A stabs B, causing a non-fatal wound.
B refuses medical treatment due to personal beliefs and dies.
The court may decide whether B's refusal was a novus actus interveniens that breaks the chain of causation from A’s stabbing.
🔹 Famous Case Law:
R v Jordan [1956]
A man was stabbed and later given excessive and inappropriate medical treatment.
The court ruled the medical treatment was so negligent it broke the chain of causation — a novus actus interveniens.
R v Smith [1959]
Despite poor medical treatment, the original stab wound was still considered an "operating and substantial cause" of death.
Chain of causation not broken.
🔹 Conclusion:
Novus actus interveniens is a crucial doctrine for determining legal causation. It can relieve a defendant of liability if an unforeseeable, independent event causes the harm instead of (or after) the defendant’s act.
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