{"id":715,"date":"2012-04-19T15:09:46","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T19:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/?p=715"},"modified":"2012-05-05T17:09:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T21:09:12","slug":"people-v-acosta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/people-v-acosta\/","title":{"rendered":"People v. Acosta, 284 Cal. Rptr. 117 (1991)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Case Name: <\/strong>People v. Acosta<br \/>\n<strong>Citation: <\/strong>284 Cal. Rptr. 117 (1991)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Facts: <\/strong>Two police helicopters crashed, killing three occupants, during a chase of the defendant, Acosta. One of the helicopter pilots violated FAA regulations during the chase.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defendant\u2019s argument: <\/strong>The helicopter pilot\u2019s FAA violations were a <a title=\"Intervening Causes in Criminal Law\" href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/intervening-causes-in-criminal-law\/\">superseding cause<\/a> of the accident.\u00a0 Also, it was unforeseeable (highly extraordinary) for a mid-air helicopter crash because the FAA inspector that testified had never heard of one and there was no civil or criminal cases involving a two-helicopter collision.<\/p>\n<p><strong>State\u2019s argument: <\/strong>Acosta&#8217;s actions were the actual (\u201cbut-for\u201d) cause of the helicopter crash. The proximate cause requirement was fulfilled because it was foreseeable or \u201ca possible consequence which reasonably might have been contemplated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holding: <\/strong>Acosta was the proximate cause but the judgment was reversed because there was insufficient evidence of malice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reasoning: <\/strong>The proximate cause requirement was fulfilled because it was foreseeable or \u201ca possible consequence which reasonably might have been contemplated.\u201d That no pursuits have ever before resulted in a helicopter crash or midair collision is more a comment on police flying skill and technology than upon the innate probabilities involved.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dissent: <\/strong>The <a title=\"Intervening Causes in Criminal Law\" href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/intervening-causes-in-criminal-law\/\">intervening<\/a> negligent conduct (of the helicopter pilot) and the risk of harm were not foreseeable; therefore, the law does not assign blame. The dissent then quoted Cardozo in <em>Palsgraf v. Long Island R. Co (1928)<\/em> and stated that the helicopters were not in the \u201czone of danger.\u201d (<em>Dissent is incorrect because the trier of fact also looks to see if there is a sufficient relationship that the law is justified in imposing liability<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Case Name: People v. Acosta Citation: 284 Cal. Rptr. 117 (1991) Facts: Two police helicopters crashed, killing three occupants, during a chase of the defendant, Acosta. One of the helicopter pilots violated FAA regulations during the chase. Defendant\u2019s argument: The helicopter pilot\u2019s FAA violations were a superseding cause of the accident.\u00a0 Also, it was unforeseeable &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/people-v-acosta\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;People v. Acosta, 284 Cal. Rptr. 117 (1991)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,145],"tags":[168],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-briefs-criminal-law","category-criminal-law","tag-causation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>People v. Acosta, 284 Cal. 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