Also known as: causation-in-fact · causal in fact · but-for causation · factual causation · actual cause
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A requirement that the defendant's conduct must have been a necessary antecedent to the plaintiff's injury or the harmful result. The element is satisfied when the harm would not have occurred but for the defendant's act.
Cameron Cruz stabbed Clifford Cox during an argument. Cox lingered for eighteen months before dying from complications of the wound. Prosecutors could prove that but for the stabbing Cox would not have died. The common-law year-and-a-day rule nevertheless barred a homicide charge.
Claire Campbell alleged that her supervisor filed a negative performance review only after she complained of discrimination. The employer showed that the same review would have been issued regardless of the complaint. Because causation in fact was absent, the retaliation claim failed.
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Continental Bank sold tribal shares to Cade Carpenter without disclosing that the shares carried a right of first refusal. Carpenter proved he would not have purchased the shares at the offered price had the right been revealed. The omission therefore satisfied causation in fact for the Rule 10b-5 claim.
Corinne Cho was charged with transmitting HIV by biting a victim. The prosecution offered medical testimony that transmission through a bite was possible. The court admitted the evidence because it was relevant to mental state even though civil standards of causation in fact would have required greater certainty.
Charlotte Chung used pneumatic tools manufactured by Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. and developed hand-arm vibration syndrome. She introduced epidemiological evidence showing that exposure to the tools more than doubled her risk of the disease. The proof established causation in fact between the product and her injury.
Cascade Manufacturing produced a portion of the DES ingested by pregnant women whose daughters later developed cancer. Because the precise manufacturer could not be identified, the court applied market-share liability. Each producer's share of the market supplied the requisite causation in fact for its proportional share of damages.
The but-for test asks whether the harm would have occurred in the absence of the defendant's conduct. If the harm would not have happened but for that conduct, causation in fact is established.
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Causation in fact determines whether the defendant's act was a necessary antecedent of the harm. Proximate cause further limits liability by asking whether the harm was a foreseeable result within the scope of the risk created by the conduct.
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Yes. When two independent acts each would have been sufficient to produce the harm, either act satisfies causation in fact even though neither is the sole but-for cause.
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At common law the rule barred homicide liability once the period expired, even if the defendant's conduct clearly satisfied but-for causation.
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…will be advanced. The purpose of terminal sedation is to ease the suffering of the patient and comply with her wishes, and the actual cause of death is the administration of heavy doses of lethal sedatives. This same intent and causation may exist when a doctor complies with a patient's request for lethal medication to hasten…