Also known as: natural consequences · natural and probable consequence
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A predictable outcome that follows from a particular act or event in the ordinary course of events. The concept supplies the required causal link when an unlawful act or abnormally dangerous condition produces harm that a reasonable observer would anticipate from the conduct.
Norman Nash, unlicensed and driving after dark, swerved to avoid a pothole and struck a power pole. The resulting blackout sent pedestrian Nadia Novak down an unlit stairwell where she died. The death counted as a natural consequence of the traffic misdemeanor because blackout-related falls are the ordinary result of disabling street lighting during an unlawful act.
Northern Manufacturing built a large reservoir on its land to power milling operations. When the embankment failed, water poured into Northstar Logistics' adjacent mine and destroyed equipment. The flooding damage was the natural consequence of storing water on non-natural land use, triggering strict liability regardless of care exercised.
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Nathaniel Newman, a Black applicant, was repeatedly passed over for police-sergeant certification because of earlier discriminatory hiring at the entry level. The resulting scarcity of qualified Black candidates for higher ranks was the natural consequence of the initial barrier, supporting the claim of ongoing disparate impact.
Noelle North remained in a persistent vegetative state sustained only by feeding tubes. When the tubes were removed under court order, her death followed as the natural consequence of the body's inability to function without artificial intervention.
Noreen Nguyen was charged with deliberate homicide after firing into a crowded room. The trial court instructed the jury that a person is presumed to intend the natural consequences of her acts. The instruction relieved the state of proving mens rea and violated due process.
Nathan Nguyen, sentenced to death, developed severe mental illness that prevented him from understanding the punishment. Carrying out the sentence would produce the natural consequence of executing a person lacking rational comprehension of his fate, violating the Eighth Amendment.
Most courts require that the death be a foreseeable or natural consequence of the misdemeanor or non-felony offense. If the underlying act is malum in se, the link is usually satisfied when ordinary risks of the conduct materialize. If the act is merely malum prohibitum, the prosecution must show that the fatal result was within the type of harm the prohibition sought to prevent.
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No. The test asks only whether the death was within the general type of harm that a reasonable person would anticipate from the unlawful conduct. Courts do not demand that the defendant have predicted the exact sequence of events that produced the fatality.
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When a defendant keeps on land anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, liability attaches for all damage that is the natural consequence of the escape. The rule applies even if the defendant exercised reasonable care, because the harm flows directly from the non-natural use itself.
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…of the body's vital functions, including the artificial sustenance of the body itself, then we recognize the right to allow the natural consequence of the removal of those artificial life sustaining measures." Corbett v. D'Alessandro , 487 So. 2d, at 371.