R v Wacker
The civil law rule that one criminal cannot sue another for injury caused during a joint criminal enterprise does not apply in gross negligence manslaughter.
Facts
Mr Wacker, a lorry driver, agreed to smuggle 60 Chinese illegal immigrants into the UK in a container on his lorry. He closed the only air vent in the container to avoid detection during the ferry crossing from Rotterdam to Dover. When the lorry arrived at Dover, 58 of the immigrants were found dead from suffocation. He was convicted of 58 counts of manslaughter. He argued that he owed no duty of care to the immigrants, because they were taking part in an illegal enterprise with him, and the civil law would not allow them to sue him.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal upheld the convictions. The civil law principle of ex turpi causa, which prevents a person from suing for injury suffered in the course of a joint illegal enterprise, has no place in the criminal law. Kay LJ said that the criminal law serves a different purpose from the civil law, in protecting citizens and punishing wrongdoers, and that the public policy considerations behind the civil law rule do not apply. Mr Wacker had voluntarily assumed responsibility for the immigrants' safety and owed them a duty of care.
Related cases on involuntary manslaughter
- DPP v Newbury and Jones [1977] AC 500
- R v Adomako [1995] 1 AC 171
- R v Bateman (1925) 19 Cr App R 8
- R v Bawa-Garba [2016] EWCA Crim 1841
- R v Cato [1976] 1 WLR 110
- R v Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd [2011] EWCA Crim 1337
- R v Dawson (1985) 81 Cr App R 150
- R v Goodfellow (1986) 83 Cr App R 23
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