Proximate cause restricts liability to consequences within the scope of the risk created by the defendant's conduct, generally measured by foreseeability. It operates alongside cause in fact, which asks whether the harm would have occurred but for the conduct.
Superseding causes break the chain where an intervening event was unforeseeable.
Alternative Names:
Legal Cause, Proximate Causation
Why it Matters?
Proximate cause is the doctrine that prevents liability from extending indefinitely down a causal chain, and it is the framework for intervening cause arguments in premises, security, and product cases. The practical contest is usually foreseeability: whether a criminal act, a subsequent medical error, or a third party's misuse was within the risk the defendant created. Framing the scope of the risk narrowly is the defense objective.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
How does proximate cause differ from cause in fact?
What breaks the causal chain?
