Liability for Serving Poisoned Food

[debodun]

My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: NY

Scenario: Person A brings food to a social event that has been deliberately poisoned by Person B with the intention of harming Person A because Person B is impatient to inherit the estate of Person A. However, Person A is unaware that the food item has been poisoned and brings that food to a social event where people that eat it become ill, or worse. Who is ultimately responsible - Person A or Person B?

[cbg]

I'm going to assume you are writing a crime novel and not contemplating poisoning someone.

[debodun]

Neither.

[cbg]

I'm not doing your homework for you.

[comment/ator]

I actually knew of a situation sort of like this, in terms of a laxative filled cake that someone likely brought to work for a co-worker they didn't like. The co-worker, who suspected tampering, (since the person had bragged to others she was going to do this) actually took the cake and claiming to be on a diet, threatened to donate it to the daycare in the same building, Fortunately, the original tamperer backed out, said she'd just "take the cake home!" if the other person was going to be that way. We never knew for sure, but always always strongly suspected there'd been tampering involved. There's no underestimating the power of insanity and poor judgment.