Something which is either carelessly or intentionally caused and results in someone's injuries or distress. This is also known as the "extraordinary in hindsight" rule.[6]. [7] It does not matter how foreseeable the result as long as what the negligent party's physical activity can be tied to what actually happened. Damages: The plaintiff suffered an injury as a direct result of the defendant’s actions. The actual cause is a straightforward explanation of what caused the accident. ROBERT E. KEETON, LEGAL CAUSE IN THE LAW OF TORTS 9–10 (1963). Proximate cause of an injury results if the defendant had not committed or omitted an act, the injury would not have occurred. This doesn’t mean the distracted driver wasn’t acting negligently; it just means that their actions weren’t related to the proximate cause. When it is used, it is used to consider the class of people injured, not the type of harm. In personal injury law, proximate cause is the primary cause of injury in an accident. In other words, the defendant should have reasonably anticipated that his or her conduct could result in your injuries. In other wor… RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF TORTS: LIAB. "When defendants move for a determination that plaintiff’s harm is beyond the scope of liability as a matter of law, courts must initially consider all of the range of harms risked by the defendant’s conduct that the jury could find as the basis for determining that conduct tortious. It is not necessarily the closest cause in time or space nor the first event that sets in motion a sequence of events leading to an injury. ‘So, its causal relationship with the primary negligence is very proximate and most immediate, in our submission.’. It refers to the foreseeability of that injury taking place. For instance, consider a distracted driver who is texting and driving in the northbound lane. Proximate cause is not a cut-and-dry matter and requires the expertise of a knowledgeable personal injury attorney. Duty: The defendant owed the plaintiff a legal duty of care to act reasonably, such as safely operating a vehicle. To prove liability in an Arizona personal injury case, a personal injury lawyer must establish the defendant was negligent. FOR PHYSICAL HARM § 29 (Proposed Final Draft No. ‘In theatre your contact with your audience is immediate and proximate.’. They also result in a foreseeable effect – like an injury, or losing your case – that would not have otherwise occurred. Many insurers have attempted to contract around efficient proximate cause through the use of "anti-concurrent causation" (ACC) clauses, under which if a covered cause and a noncovered cause join together to cause a loss, the loss is not covered. From rear-end ... 414 East Southern Ave. Cause-in-fact is determined by the "but for" test: But for the action, the result would not have happened. The event would not have occurred but for the cause. [14], The doctrine of proximate cause is notoriously confusing. Information and translations of proximate cause in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Proximate cause is an act, whether intentional or negligent, that is determined to have caused someone else’s damages, injury, or suffering. 1, 2005). Jill would not have hit Lisa but for Tim’s actions, so Tim is liable for Lisa’s injuries as well. It is an act or omission that is considered in law to result in a consequence, so that liability can be imposed on the actor. d (Proposed Final Draft No. Foreseeability is a personal injury law concept that is often used to determine proximate cause after an accident. But even if you’re geared with a legal definition of proximate cause, it doesn’t make understanding this complex Arizona law any easier. through in-person consultations, video chat, phone, or email. It may not necessarily be the closest cause or the first event, which can make proving proximate cause a complex affair. Proximate definition is - immediately preceding or following (as in a chain of events, causes, or effects). In the case of running a red light or tailgating, the defendant would be found liable even if they misjudged their behavior as not harmful. Their behaviors can be considered substantial factors in causing the plaintiff’s injury. Actual cause refers to the genuine cause of an accident, as we saw above.Proximate cause, on the other hand, is the legal cause, or what the law recognizes as the primary factor of the injury. Proximate cause is also known as proximate causation. A few circumstances exist where the but for test is ineffective (see But-for test). A car accident can occur in just one moment, but it can cause a lifetime of trauma. The name given to the direct cause of an accident or incident leading to injury, is referred to as ‘proximate’. In their intoxicated state, the driver swerves and sideswipes the car. contact us if you have any questions! The proximate cause is the efficient cause, the one that necessarily sets the other causes in operation. 414 East Southern Ave. However, if a reasonable person could not foresee the possibility of injury from the defendant’s actions, the defendant could be found not liable. The Plaintiff’s Actions: If the plaintiff placed themselves at risk of being harmed, the validity of their claim can be brought into question. For example, if you walk in an area with a wet floor sign, you place yourself at risk of slipping. (For example, but for running the red light, the collisionwould not have occurred.) Direct causation is a minority test, which addresses only the metaphysical concept of causation. Therefore, if they were hurt by it, the proximate cause would be negligible. Proximate cause is the primary cause of the injury, but it does not mean that it is the only cause or even the “closest” cause to the accident. The most common test of proximate cause under the American legal system is foreseeability. 1 (especially of the cause of something) closest in relationship; immediate. But proximate cause is still met if a thrown baseball misses the target and knocks a heavy object off a shelf behind them, which causes a blunt-force injury. The doctrine is actually used by judges in a somewhat arbitrary fashion to limit the scope of the defendant's liability to a subset of the total class of potential plaintiffs who may have suffered some harm from the defendant's actions. If the action were repeated, the likelihood of the harm would correspondingly increase. The information on this website is for general information purposes only. A few circumstance… - Rottenstein Law Group LLP", http://lawreview.law.wfu.edu/documents/issue.44.1247.pdf, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Proximate_cause&oldid=992000078, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. The first element of the test is met if the injured person was a member of a class of people who could be expected to be put at risk of injury by the action. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual This test is called proximate cause. Please don’t In today’s crowded streets, there are often multiple cars involved in accidents. It refers to how foreseeable an injury was as a direct or indirect result of another person’s actions. If the injury suffered is not the result of one of those risks, there can be no recovery. hesitate to See RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF TORTS: LIAB. FOR PHYSICAL HARM § 29 cmt. Consider a driver who is heading west in their vehicle. Since but-for causation is very easy to show (but for stopping to tie your shoe, you would not have missed the train and would not have been mugged), a second test is used to determine if an action is close enough to a harm in a "chain of events" to be legally valid. n. a happening which results in an event, particularly injury due to negligence or an intentional wrongful act. An intervening cause has several requirements: it must 1) be independent of the original act, 2) be a voluntary human act or an abnormal natural event, and 3) occur in time between the original act and the harm. In law, a proximate cause is an event sufficiently related to an injury that the courts deem the event to be the cause of that injury. Proximate cause is the primary cause of an injury. However, there is a difference between the actual cause and proximate cause of the injury. AZ In a negligence case, there must be a relatively close connection between the defendant’s breach of duty and the injury. Breach: The defendant breached their duty by failing to use reasonable care, such as yielding or stopping at a stoplight. For example, someone should reasonably foresee that drunk driving could result in a serious car accident. Failing to prove proximate cause can have your case dismissed, disrupt your settlement check timeline, or lower compensation. Evident in Corrigan v HSE (2011 IEHC 305). g (1965). “The sole proximate cause theory should be just as viable with two or more nonparty actors as it is with a single nonparty.” 3 The reason is that “‘a defendant is relieved from all liability if it can show that the injury was legally caused in its entirety by other persons or entities—that is, that the sole proximate cause of … It is not necessarily the closest cause in time or space nor the first event that sets in motion a sequence of events leading to an injury. For an act to be deemed to cause a harm, both tests must be met; proximate cause is a legal limitation on cause-in-fact. Proximate definition, next; nearest; immediately before or after in order, place, occurrence, etc. A minority of jurisdictions have ruled ACC clauses to be unenforceable as against public policy, but they are generally enforceable in the majority of jurisdictions. proximate cause Malpractice An element required to prove negligence; the plaintiff–Pt or Pt's estate must prove that the Pt's injury is reasonably connected to the physician's action, through either the 'but for' test or the 'substantial factor' test. Benjamin C. Zipursky, Foreseeability in Breach, Duty and Proximate Cause, 44 Wake F. L. Rev. Learn more. The harm within the risk (HWR) test determines whether the victim was among the class of persons who could foreseeably be harmed, and whether the harm was foreseeable within the class of risks. Proximate cause is used in civil and criminal cases, and are frequent in … What does Proximate Cause mean? There is proximate cause if your injuries were foreseeable. Meaning of proximate cause. How to use proximate in a sentence. It is also known as legal cause. There are several competing theories of proximate cause (see Other factors). The test is used in most cases only in respect to the type of harm. A related doctrine is the insurance law doctrine of efficient proximate cause. For example, weaving between lanes or failing to yield to traffic signals. Because of this, there are several key points that a judge and jury will take into account when deciding if a claim of proximate cause is valid: The plaintiff’s actions are especially important for both car accidents and slip and fall cases. As the name suggests, a proximate cause is a cause that sets a sequence of events into motion. [1] (For example, but for running the red light, the collision would not have occurred.) Proximate cause is sometimes difficult for students to grasp. It is the strictest test of causation, made famous by Benjamin Cardozo in Palsgraf v. 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