Was the suicide a novus actus interveniens?
Ward LJ referred to a number of cases on this issue. The first was Cavanagh v London Transport Executives (reported in the Times, 23rd October 1956), where the Claimant suffered a fractured skull in an accident and sixteen months after the accident committed suicide. The court held that the accident was the cause of his accident. In Pigney v Pointers Transport Services Ltd [1957] 1 WLR 1121 there were similar facts. The court held that the deceased had committed suicide when he was not insane under the M’Naughten Rules and that this was as a consequence of the accident. The chain of causation was not broken. The third case was McKew v Holland & Hannan & Cubitts [1969] 3 All ER 1621 where the Claimant injured his leg in an accident, which later gave way beneath him as was descending the stairs. The court said that if a man is injured in such a way that his leg may give way at any moment, he must act reasonably and carefully. If the Claimant acted unreasonably, he could not hold the Defe
