Also known as: responsible causes · legal cause · proximate cause
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A causal connection between an actor's tortious conduct and resulting harm that the law deems sufficient to impose liability on the actor absent a defense.
Rosalind Reed hired Riverstone Manufacturing to install safety railings on a loading dock. The company failed to secure the posts properly. When a delivery truck backed into the dock, the railing gave way and Reed fell, breaking her hip. The installation defect directly produced the collapse that caused her injury.
Riley Rivera allowed her twelve-year-old son to drive the family car after he had been cited for reckless driving. The son lost control and struck a pedestrian. Rivera's decision to entrust the vehicle despite known risks produced the collision that injured the pedestrian.
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Rachel Ramirez locked Roger Ramirez inside a storage room by bolting the only exit after an argument. Roger remained trapped for several hours until a coworker found him. The intentional locking directly resulted in the confinement that caused his emotional distress.
Rina Rahman, a lab technician, left a corrosive chemical uncapped on a workbench. A colleague later knocked the container over, suffering severe burns. Rahman's failure to secure the container produced the spill that caused the burns.
Roland Rhodes, a delivery driver for Redline Automotive, ignored a known brake warning light and continued his route. The brakes failed on a downhill grade, causing a collision that injured another motorist. Rhodes's operation of the defective vehicle produced the crash that resulted in the injuries.
Reliance Insurance's security guard intentionally blocked the only exit from a conference room during a false alarm drill. Several employees remained trapped inside for forty minutes. The guard's deliberate action produced the confinement that caused their distress.
The plaintiff must prove that the defendant's tortious conduct was a substantial factor in bringing about the harm and that the harm falls within the scope of risks that made the conduct negligent. Legal cause exists when the causal sequence leads the law to hold the actor responsible absent a defense.
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No. Multiple forces may each qualify as a responsible cause when each is independently sufficient to produce the harm. The law may hold each actor liable even if another force would have caused identical injury.
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Factual cause asks whether the harm would have occurred but for the conduct. Responsible cause adds the requirement that the law deems the connection sufficient to impose liability, considering scope of risk and any superseding forces.
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…corporation, in the federal court for the southern district of that State. The issues were whether negligence of defendant was a proximate cause of his injuries and whether negligence of plaintiff contributed. He claimed that, by hauling the car with the open door, defendant violated a duty to him. The defendant insisted that it…