Also known as: legal cause · legally caused · legally causes · proximate cause · cause in law
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The causal sequence by which the actor's tortious conduct has resulted in an invasion of some legally protected interest of another is such that the law holds the actor responsible for such harm unless there is some defense to liability. Legal causation supplies the normative limit on liability after factual causation is established.
Leonard Lowe, a plant operator, failed to follow required shutdown procedures during a pressure spike. The resulting explosion injured nearby residents. Because Lowe's conduct created the risk that made the harm foreseeable, the law treats his breach as the legal cause of the injuries.
Leah Lamb allowed her minor son to drive the family car despite knowing he had no license. The son struck a pedestrian. The court finds Lamb's own negligent entrustment, rather than the parent-child relationship alone, supplies the legal cause of the pedestrian's injuries.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Luna Lang deliberately left a gate open on her property. A neighbor's livestock escaped and were injured on the highway. The law holds Lang responsible because the sequence from her tortious conduct to the livestock loss satisfies the requirements for legal causation.
Liam Larson, the defendant in a negligence suit, left a ladder unsecured on a shared worksite. A coworker tripped and fell. The court treats Larson as the actor whose conduct must be examined to determine whether it constitutes a legal cause of the coworker's injury.
Lily Lopez, a delivery driver, parked her truck across a crosswalk. A pedestrian was struck while detouring into traffic. The jury must determine whether Lopez's conduct was a legal cause of the pedestrian's harm as part of the negligence claim.
Lorenzo Lugo intentionally blocked an exit to confine a coworker during an argument. The coworker suffered a panic attack while trying to escape. The law treats Lugo's act as the legal cause of the confinement even though the harm occurred indirectly.
Factual causation asks whether the result would have occurred but for the defendant's conduct. Legal causation adds the further requirement that the result fall within the type of harm the conduct risked and not be too remote or accidental to support liability.
Supporting sources
No. An intervening omission or act severs legal causation only when it is so abnormal or unforeseeable that the result becomes too remote to have a just bearing on the defendant's liability. Foreseeable victim responses do not break the chain.
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The court examines whether the actual harm is of the same general kind as the risk created by the defendant's conduct and whether the manner of its occurrence was bizarre or highly fortuitous. Ordinary or even rare equipment failures within an industrial setting usually remain within the risk.
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Yes. Each antecedent without which the result would not have occurred in its actual form can qualify as a but-for cause, and each may also satisfy legal causation if the harm falls within the risk created by that actor's conduct.
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…rather than refute causation. A relative risk of less than two may suggest teratogenicity, but it actually tends to disprove legal causation, as it shows that Bendectin does not double the likelihood of birth defects.[^maj-17] With the exception of Dr. Palmer, whose testimony is inadmissible under the first prong of the Rule…