Also known as: intervening circumstances · intervening circumstance · intervening cause · superseding cause
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A factor that breaks the causal connection between unconstitutional police conduct and subsequently discovered evidence. The presence of such a circumstance is one of three factors used to determine whether the taint of the illegality has been sufficiently attenuated to permit admission of the evidence.
A factor that breaks the causal connection between unconstitutional police conduct and subsequently discovered evidence. The presence of such a circumstance is one of three factors used to determine whether the taint of the illegality has been sufficiently attenuated to permit admission of the evidence.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
An act or force arising after the defendant's negligent conduct that may relieve the defendant of liability for resulting harm. Such an intervening circumstance qualifies as a superseding cause when it so interrupts the sequence of events that the original negligence is no longer treated as a legal cause of the harm.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
An act or force arising after the defendant's negligent conduct that may relieve the defendant of liability for resulting harm. Such an intervening circumstance qualifies as a superseding cause when it so interrupts the sequence of events that the original negligence is no longer treated as a legal cause of the harm.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
An officer conducted an unlawful investigatory stop of Pavel Petrov. During the encounter the officer learned of a valid preexisting arrest warrant unrelated to the stop. The officer arrested Petrov on the warrant and found drugs. The discovery of the warrant operates as an intervening circumstance that attenuates the taint of the illegal stop.
Police arrested Perry Pratt without probable cause. Several hours later, after Miranda warnings and a break in questioning, Pratt confessed. The passage of time combined with the giving of warnings functions as an intervening circumstance that may dissipate the taint of the illegal arrest.
The presence of intervening circumstances is the second factor in the three-part attenuation test. When a valid arrest warrant is discovered after an unlawful stop, that discovery constitutes an intervening circumstance that, together with the other factors, can purge the taint and render evidence admissible.
Supporting sources
No. Even when the unlawful stop and evidence discovery are close in time, the presence of an intervening circumstance such as a valid preexisting warrant can still attenuate the taint if the officer's conduct was not flagrant.
Supporting sources
Riverfront Hotel left a side entrance lock broken for days. Elena, a rideshare driver, propped the door open with a rock to assist a guest. An intruder then entered and assaulted the guest. The court must decide whether Elena's affirmative act of propping the door constitutes an intervening circumstance that a jury could find supersedes the hotel's negligence.
Prime Logistics negligently left a loading dock unsecured. A pedestrian, Phoebe Park, saw a forklift rolling toward her and jumped aside, knocking over a bystander. The pedestrian's instinctive effort to avoid the rolling forklift is an intervening circumstance that does not supersede the company's negligence.
Paragon Construction left scaffolding unstable. A third-party worker, Patrick Phan, deliberately pushed the scaffolding to test it, causing it to collapse onto a passerby. The worker's deliberate and unusual test is an intervening circumstance whose extraordinary character may render it a superseding cause.
Pacific Bank negligently failed to secure customer records. A thief exploited the exact vulnerability the bank created and stole the records. The thief's intervention is an intervening circumstance that does not supersede the bank's liability because the bank increased the foreseeable risk of that precise harm.
An intervening circumstance is a superseding cause when it so interrupts the chain of events that the original negligence is no longer treated as a legal cause of the harm. The key inquiry is whether the later act or force operates in an extraordinary or independent manner that the law treats as cutting off responsibility.
Supporting sources
When the defendant's negligence creates or increases the risk of the precise harm that occurs through the intervention of another force, that intervention remains within the scope of the original risk and is not superseding.
Supporting sources
…So in most instances it should not be difficult to make an objective assessment as to whether or not a particular fact or intervening circumstance would suffice, in the normal course, to cause prosecutorial withdrawal or judicial nonapproval of a plea bargain. The determination that there is or is not a reasonable probability that the…