What is proximate cause?
Proximate cause is the initial act or occurrence which sets off a natural, uninterrupted and continuous sequence of events that produces damage. In the absence of the initial occurrence which produces damage, no loss or damage would have resulted. Therefore when an insurance company asks you what was the proximate cause of house being burnt, they are not necessarily referring to the fire but what caused the fire.
The plaintiff in a products liability case must prove that the product was defective when it left the defendant’s hands and that the defect proximately caused the injury. A defect has been said to be a proximate cause of an injury if the injury was a direct, natural, or probable result of the defect’s existence. The issue of causation in a products liability case can be complicated, especially if the defect in the product involved was an indirect or remote cause, or only one of a number of potential causes. The determination of whether the defendant’s negligence or breach of warranty proximately caused the plaintiff’s injuries is very much dependent on the facts of the particular case. When the evidence indicates that the injury could have resulted from a number of causes, the question becomes whether the cause for which the defendant is responsible was a substantial factor in bringing about the injury. For instance, if the plaintiff was burned when she removed the glass pot from a dri
