R v Dalloway (1847) 2 Cox CC 273
Stafford Assizes, Oxford Circuit, 20 July 1847, before Erle J — manslaughter, negligent driving and causation.
Facts
Dalloway was driving a horse-drawn spring-cart along a public road. He stood in the cart without holding the reins, which lay loose on the horse’s back. As the horse trotted down a slope, a child of about three, Henry Clarke, ran across the road a few yards in front of it.
A wheel of the cart knocked the child down and passed over him, causing his death. It did not appear that Dalloway had seen the child in the road before the accident. He was indicted for manslaughter on the basis of his negligence as the driver.
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Issue
Was Dalloway’s failure to use the reins a cause of the child’s death? The prosecution argued that his negligent way of driving made him responsible for the fatal accident.
The judge’s direction
Erle J directed the jury that neglect of ordinary caution could amount to manslaughter where that neglect caused another person’s death. It was therefore necessary to connect the negligent driving with the death, rather than simply establish that Dalloway had driven without holding the reins.
If he could have saved the child by using the reins, the jury could find him guilty. But if they thought that pulling the reins, or otherwise using them, could not have saved the child, they had to acquit him.
Outcome
The jury acquitted Dalloway.
Legal principle
The case distinguishes the involvement of the defendant’s vehicle in an accident from the causal effect of the negligence alleged against him. For this manslaughter charge, it was not enough that his cart killed the child while he was driving carelessly. The failure to use the reins had to make the relevant difference: if proper use of them could not have prevented the death, the negligent omission did not justify a conviction.
Original report: The Queen v Dalloway, 2 Cox CC 273–274.
