This lesson introduces the two kinds of causation used in law and explains how the but-for test works. It also examines situations in which that test is difficult to apply.
A court assessing an injury may ask two different questions. Cause-in-fact asks whether the defendant's action was a factual cause of the injury. Proximate cause, also called legal cause, asks whether the connection between the action and injury is sufficiently close for the law to treat the action as a legally valid cause.
All flashcards
What is cause-in-fact?
A factual connection between an action and an injury, commonly tested by asking whether the injury would have happened but for the action.
What is proximate cause?
A legal-causation requirement that asks whether an action is sufficiently related to an injury for the law to treat it as a cause.
What does sine qua non mean in causation law?
It is the formal Latin term for cause-in-fact under the but-for test: the action was a necessary condition of the result.
What are sufficient combined causes?
Two or more acts where either one alone would have been sufficient to cause the injury. The law may hold each negligent actor liable even though the ordinary but-for test does not distinguish them.
How can market-share evidence address an unidentified product maker?
When a fungible product caused injury and the specific maker cannot be identified, damages may be allocated according to the market shares of qualifying manufacturers joined in the lawsuit.
Quiz questions
Under the foreseeability test for proximate cause, what is assessed?Answer: Whether the type of harm was reasonably predictable.
In the direct-causation approach, what is a central concern?Answer: Whether an intervening cause broke the physical causal chain.
What must a plaintiff show under the risk-enhancement approach?Answer: That the defendant's conduct increased the risk of the particular harm.
Under the harm-within-the-risk test, which question concerns the injured person?Answer: Whether the person belonged to a foreseeable class put at risk.
What does efficient proximate cause identify in an insurance dispute?Answer: The predominant cause that set the loss-producing chain in motion.
Based on the Wikipedia article Proximate cause, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.