CHANCE

In criminal law. An accident; an unexpected, unforeseen, or unintended consequence of an act; a fortuit.ous event. The opposite of intention, design, or contrivance. There is a wide difference between chance and a.,ccident. The one is the intervention of some unlooked-for circumstance to prevent an expected result; the other is the uncalculated ef• fect of mere luck. The shot discharged at random strikes its object by chance; that which is turned aside from its well-directed aim by some unforeseen circumstance mi es its mark by accident. Pure chance consists in the entire absence of all the means of calculating results; accident, in the unusual prevention of an effect naturally resulting from the means employed. Harle v. U. S., Morris (Iowa) 173. -Chance verdict, One determined by hazard or lot, and not by _the deliberate understanding and agreement of the jury. Goodman v. Cody, 1 Wash. T. 335, 34 Am. Rep.. 808; Dixon T. Pluns, 98 Cal. 384, 33 Pac. 268, 20 L. R. A. 698, 35 Am. St. Rep. 180; Improvement Co. v. Adams, 1 Oolo. App. 250, 28 P;i.c. 662. [s. 195]