Thus, under the agency theory, the felony-murder rule is inapplicable where the killing is done by one resisting the felony. Defendant offers several arguments in an attempt at avoiding application of the proximate cause theory in this case. Initially, defendant urges this court to overrule Payne and Hickman, and adopt an agency theory of felony murder. We decline to do so. We believe that the analogies between civil and criminal cases in which individuals are injured or killed are so close that the principle of proximate cause applies to both classes of cases.
Causal relation is the universal factor common to all legal liability.
In the law of torts, the individual who unlawfully sets in motion a chain of events which in the natural order of things results in damages to another is held to be responsible for it. It is equally consistent with reason and sound public policy to hold that when a felon's attempt to commit a forcible felony sets in motion a chain of events which were or should have been within his contemplation when the motion was initiated, he should be held responsible for any death which by direct and almost inevitable sequence results from the initial criminal act. Thus, there is no reason why the principle underlying the doctrine of proximate cause should not apply to criminal cases. Moreover, we believe that the intent behind the felony-murder doctrine would be thwarted if we did not hold felons responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their actions. Defendant next argues that we should abandon the proximate cause theory because Illinois originally followed the agency theory of felony murder.