Proximate Cause Flashcards
What is proximate cause?
Legal causation – asking if the defendant should be held liable
Who decides proximate cause?
Jury
Is there transferred intent in negligence?
No
What is the Harm Within the Risk Rule?
- Type of Harm
Was the type of harm or injury foreseeable based on the conduct?
2. Class of Person Was the person who was injured in the class of people who would foreseeably be injured?
True or False: For the harm within the risk rule, you only need to foresee the TYPE of harm, not the way it happened
True
Is a rescuer a type of person that could be foreseen in the Harm Within the Risk Rule?
Yes
What is the Very Breach Rule and what restatement is it from?
Third Restatement says liability is limited to harms that result from the very risks that made the conduct tortious to begin with (giving kid a gun and he breaks his toe ≠ very breach)
What is an intervening cause?
Generally they don’t break the chain and ∆ would still be a proximate cause (but might lessen ∆’s apportionment of fault)
Liability turns on whether the intervening act is a normal and foreseeable consequence of the situation created by ∆’s negligence
What happens if there is a superseding cause?
The original negligent ∆ would not be liable anymore
What is a superseding cause?
Something happens that is not foreseeable and is extraordinary (negligently setting up a construction site and then a plane plows into it)
Is a criminal act a superseding cause?
Used to be, but courts are split now
Is suicide a superseding cause?
Yes, but with two exceptions: if ∆ induced it, and if there was a special relationship
What is Termination of Risk?
When the π reaches a point of apparent safety and situation has stabilized and become normal, then ∆ is no longer responsible for the situation
What is the second injury rule?
∆ can be liable for a second injury that occurs from negligent medical care because it’s foreseeable that negligent medical care could be a result of original injury
