Negligence -Caustion Flashcards
What is the simple rule statement for causation?
The plaintiff must prove that the defendant’s actions were both the actual cause and the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury.
What are two types of actual causation?
- But-for
2. Multiple and/or indeterminate tortfeasors
What is the But-for test?
The injury would not have occurred but for the defendant’s act or omission, i.e. the defendant is the factual cause of the harm.
What are the 4 Multiple/ indeterminate defendant test?
- Substantial factor
- Concurrent tortfeasors contributing to an individual injury
- Alternative causation
- Concert of action
When is a defendant an substantial factor?
The test is whether the defendant’s tortious conduct was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s harm.
*cases where several causes or acts may have contributed to the plaintiff’s injury. each of which alone would have been a factual cause of the harm.
When does concurrent tortfeasors contribute to an individual injury?
When the act of tow or more defendants are each a factual cause of one harm, the defendant’s are jointly and severally liable.
What is Alternative causation?
If the plaintiff’s harm was caused by one of a few defendants and each was negligent and it cannot be determined which one caused the harm.
Courts will shift the burden of proof to the defendants
What is concert of action?
When two or more defendant’s were acting together collectively and that causes the palintiff’s harm, all defendants will be jointly and severally liable.
What is Loss of Chance Recovery?
A patient with less than a 50% chance of survival would not ever be able to recover for negligence.
Today- if a physician negligently reduces the plaintiff’s chance of survival, then that plaintiff can recover.
What is proximate cause (legal cause)
Requires that the plaintiff suffer a foreseeable harm that is not too remote and is within the risk created by the defendant’s conduct.
What is the majority rule on foreseeable harm?
A defendant is liable for reasonably foreseeable consequences resulting from his conduct.
- the type of harm must be foreseeable, through the extent if harm need not be foreseeable.
- liability is limited to those harms that result from the risks that made the defendant’s conduct tortious.
What is the minority rule on foreseeable harm?
Liable for all consequences that flow directly form the defendant’s conduct,
What is an intervening Act?
An indirect result from an act or event occurring after the defendant’s tortious act and before the plaintiff’s injury.
What is a superseding cause?
Any intervening event that breaks the chain of proximate causation between the defendant’s tortious act and the plaintiff’s harm.
Will a foreseeable intervening cause cut off defendant’s liability?
No
