Proximate or Legal Cause

Question 1

What is causation?

Answer 1

Causation usually refers to the factual connexion between the act and the damage.

Question 2

What is remoteness?

Answer 2

Remoteness refers to a policy choice: At what point do we cut off liability? At what point does it make no sense to hold the defendant liable?

D is not liable for every consequence of a breach of standard of care: Liability will be denied if the connection between the breach and the loss is too remote

Question 3

What is the directness test?

Answer 3

The plaintiff’s loss is not too remote if it was a « direct result » of the defendant’s carelessness.

Directness implied a « close temporal and spatial connection » between the defendant’s breach and the plaintiff’s loss.

Question 4

What is the foreseeability test?

Answer 4

The defendant is liable only for those consequences of his negligence which were reasonably foreseeable at the time he acted.

Question 5

What is the old test in Re Polemis and Furness?

Answer 5

A negligent actor is liable for all direct damages, even if they were not forerseeable before the accident.

Question 6

What is the Wagon Mound test (no. 1)

Answer 6

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Question 7

What is the Wagon Mound test (no. 2)?

Answer 7

Rule : The test of foreseeability of damage becomes a question of what is possible rather than what is probable.