California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Madaule, B293316 (Cal. App. 2019):
A superseding, intervening cause must be an " 'unforeseeable and extraordinary occurrence' " to relieve a defendant of criminal liability. (People v. Fiu (2008) 165 Cal.App.4th 360, 371.) Only an unforeseeable, extraordinary and abnormal occurrence will rise to the level of an "exonerating, superseding cause." (People v. Armitage (1987) 194 Cal.App.3d 405, 420-421.) Only when a victim's conduct is so remote and attenuated from the defendant's negligent conduct will the chain of causation be broken such that the intervening act becomes the sole cause of death. (Pike, supra, 197 Cal.App.3d at p. 748; Autry, supra, 37 Cal.App.4th at p. 361.)
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