and/or the California Business and Professions Code §6077.5 et. An intervening cause may break the connection between the injury and the defendant’s action, and thus destroy a negligence claim. 176-182 (1955). CCP §222.5. In contrast, a proximate cause is one in which an injury would not have occurred without the defendant’s actions. Amco Insurance Company, 1 a California Court of Appeal issued an important decision addressing this issue. Like an intervening cause, a superseding cause occurs between the defendant’s action and the plaintiff’s injury, and it is also responsible for the injury. 369 (1950). The typical advance can be seen in cases involving mental suffering. Intervening Cause intervening cause see cause. It is the immediate cause and not the remote cause. The court reaffirmed that where there are multiple causes of damage to an insured’s property, with some covered and some excluded, the loss is covered if the most important or predominant cause is a covered risk. Foreseeability is a personal injury law concept that is often used to determine proximate cause after an accident. The foreseeability test basically asks whether the person causing the injury should have reasonably foreseen the general consequences that would result because of his or her conduct. This meant his leg had to be amputated. “An efficient intervening cause is a new proximate cause which breaks the connection with the original cause and becomes itself solely responsible for the result in question. John Stone, Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group. In this case, an employee told the police that she believed someone at work stole her wedding ring. Community Towers 111 North Market Street, Suite 300 San Jose, CA 95113 Tel. A supervening or intervening cause is something that supersedes the original wrongful act or omission in the chain of causation, breaking the chain of causation between the original and actual cause and the injury. The maxim is, “Causa Proxima no remote spectator”. The California Court of Appeals issued an order to show cause and a stay of further trial court proceedings pending the Court of Appeals’ review of the record. Legal or proximate cause = Whether just or fair to hold the defendant criminally responsible. Intervening cause – Intervening cause is an unforeseeable and independent force or act that intervenes between the defendant’s original negligent act or omission and the plaintiff’s injury. L. Rxv. 2.6-1, 2011). Typically, an intervening superseding cause cuts the defendant off from criminal liability because it is much closer, or proximate, to the resulting harm (Connecticut Jury Instructions No. • “California has adopted the modern view embodied in section 448 of the Restatement Second of Torts: ‘The act of a third person in committing an intentional tort or crime is a superseding cause … actual cause: cause in fact in this entry but-for cause: cause in fact in this entry cause in fact: a cause without which the result would not have occurred called also actual cause but-for cause Before the cause went to trail, the claimant was involved in an armed robbery, during which he was shot in the same injured leg. It must be an independent force, entirely superseding the original action and rendering its effect in the causation remote. Efficient Proximate Cause: Is California Headed for a Katrina-Scale Disaster in the Same Leaky Boat? An intervening cause is a separate act of yet another party, which interrupts the direct connection between the defendant’s negligent or reckless act, and the damages or injury suffered by the plaintiff. If the intervening cause is foreseeable, however, the defendant will still be liable. See . An intervening act, which is a normal response created by negligence, is not a superseding, intervening cause so as to relieve the original wrongdoer of liability, provided the intervening act could have reasonably been foreseen and the conduct was a substantial factor in bringing about the harm. D Failure to State a Cause of Action: The defendant asserts that the plaintiff has failed to state an essential element for one or more of its causes of action, specifically: ... -Civil Code §1788 et. An intervening cause will break the chain of causation and absolve a person of liability only if the cause is a “superseding” cause. It is also called a supervening cause. The intervening cause then assumes responsibility for the resulting injury. California Proposition 19, which appeared on the November 3, 2020, ballot, appears likely to pass. The intervening cause must occur between the defendant’s negligent act and the plaintiff’s injury, and it must have caused injury to the plaintiff. In September, an 80-year old man in New York named Rocco Sapienza asked another man to put on a mask in a bar. Under the provisions of California Code of Civil Procedure section 431.30, Defendant denies, both generally and specifically, each and every allegation contained in the Complaint, and ... persons and/or other entities, and that said acts were an intervening and superseding cause of the The decisions show that a 15 Ferroggiaro v. 2.6-1, 2011). seq. The first part of the analysis is the cause-in-fact analysis, which is a determination of whether the defendant’s actions were a “cause-in-fact” of the injuries. 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