Y

A rule under the common law that an act is not the proximate cause of a death if the death occurs more than a year and a day after the act was committed. The common method of computing time is by excluding the first day and including the last. This statement means no more than a year.

At common law, the year and a day rule provided that no defendant could be convicted of murder unless his victim had died by the defendant's act within a year and a day of the act. See, e.g., Louisville, E. & St. L. R. Co. ...