ABSTRACT
A person who is engaged in an illegal act at the time he is injured may be precluded from a civil claim by the maxim ex turpi causa non oritur actio (‘no action can arise from a base cause’).
A distinction was made by Asquith LJ in National Coal Board v England (1954) between two different types of situation:
the case of two burglars on their way to commit a burglary, and while proceeding one picks the other’s pocket; and
where they have agreed to open a safe by means of high explosive and one negligently handles the explosive charge, injuring the other.
