Also known as: propinquities · proximity · consanguinity
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A state of nearness in physical location, time, or causal relation.
Perry Pratt entered a bank lobby after hours and pointed a loaded handgun at the branch manager. He ordered her to remain still while his accomplice used her access code to empty safe deposit boxes in a secure room down the corridor. The manager stayed under Pratt's control throughout. Pratt's conduct satisfied the dangerous proximity requirement for attempt because the overt act stood so near completion that the crime would have occurred but for interruption.
Progressive Healthcare maintained an unguarded excavation pit on its property. Phoebe Park trespassed onto the land near the pit. The company knew of her presence in dangerous proximity to the condition yet failed to warn her. The pit's location created liability for the resulting bodily harm because the possessor had reason to know of the trespasser's proximity.
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Philip Powell drove to the neighborhood of his intended victim's home and purchased ammunition at a nearby store. He remained several blocks away when officers stopped him. The conduct constituted only preparation because the overt acts had not yet reached the point where the crime would have been completed but for interruption.
Premier Manufacturing operated heavy machinery on its fenced lot. Pamela Phillips trespassed onto the property and stood within feet of the operating equipment. The company knew of her presence in dangerous proximity to the force yet failed to exercise reasonable care to control it or warn her. The resulting injury created liability for physical harm.
Penelope Price was stopped without reasonable suspicion. Officers discovered an unrelated outstanding warrant minutes later and arrested her. The discovery of the valid warrant constituted an intervening circumstance that attenuated the taint despite the close temporal proximity between the unlawful stop and the search incident to arrest.
Pacific Bank contacted a supplier and offered better terms to induce the supplier to breach its existing contract with Precision Tools. The bank's conduct occurred in close proximity to the interference and advanced its own interests. The proximity factor weighed in favor of liability for intentional interference with contract.
Property is within the victim's presence if it is in a place reasonably close to the victim and under the victim's control, so that the victim could have protected it but for the defendant's force or intimidation. Courts treat property in other rooms of the same premises as within presence when the victim is on site and restrained by threats.
Ongoing proximity in close quarters with repeated humiliation can prevent a reasonable person's passion from cooling and can show that the defendant in fact remained inflamed. The jury may view the entire sequence as a continuous provocation rather than an isolated event followed by cooling time.
Temporal proximity alone does not require suppression when an intervening circumstance such as discovery of a valid unrelated warrant attenuates the taint. The flagrancy of the misconduct and the presence of intervening events determine whether the causal link has been sufficiently broken.
…southerly border, St. Clair Avenue, through the central portion, and Lake Shore Boulevard, through the northerly border in close proximity to the shore of Lake Erie. The Nickel Plate railroad lies from 1,500 to 1,800 feet north of Euclid Avenue, and the Lake Shore railroad 1,600 feet farther to the north. The three highways…