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All Cases
Criminal Law
Crown Cases Reserved
1874

R v Pembliton

(1874) LR 2 CCR 119

Ratio Decidendi

Transferred malice only operates within the same type of offence. Intention to assault a person cannot be transferred to criminal damage to property.

Facts

Pembliton threw a stone at people outside a pub during a fight. He missed but broke a window.

Judgment Summary

The conviction for malicious damage was quashed. The intention to strike people could not be transferred to the offence of damaging property.

Key Quotes

"The jury have found that the prisoner threw the stone at the people, and not at the window. The conviction must be quashed."

Lord Coleridge CJ

Subsequent Treatment

Good law

Authority on the limitation of transferred malice between different types of offence.