Proximate cause requires that the injury be a foreseeable result.

Proximate cause requires that the injury be a foreseeable result.

• A. No foreseeability required.
• B. The actual cause.
• C. Foreseeable result.
• D. Intervening cause breaks chain of causation.

Answer: (C)

Proximate cause is about whether the harm was a foreseeable result of the defendant’s conduct. Liability is limited to those injuries that flow as a natural and probable consequence of what was done; if the outcome is something the defendant should have reasonably anticipated, the chain of causation holds. That’s why the correct choice is the idea of a foreseeable result—the foreseeability test defines proximate cause. If foreseeability isn’t present, the harm isn’t proximate, even if the defendant’s act was the actual cause. The term “actual cause” (cause in fact) looks at the direct chain of events, but proximate cause adds a foreseeability filter on top of that. And while intervening causes can sometimes break the chain, they do so only if they are superseding and unforeseeable; many intervening events are foreseeably linked to the original act and do not defeat proximate cause.

Proximate cause is about whether the harm was a foreseeable result of the defendant’s conduct. Liability is limited to those injuries that flow as a natural and probable consequence of what was done; if the outcome is something the defendant should have reasonably anticipated, the chain of causation holds. That’s why the correct choice is the idea of a foreseeable result—the foreseeability test defines proximate cause.

If foreseeability isn’t present, the harm isn’t proximate, even if the defendant’s act was the actual cause. The term “actual cause” (cause in fact) looks at the direct chain of events, but proximate cause adds a foreseeability filter on top of that. And while intervening causes can sometimes break the chain, they do so only if they are superseding and unforeseeable; many intervening events are foreseeably linked to the original act and do not defeat proximate cause.