intervening cause

intervening cause
intervening cause see cause 1

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law. . 1996.

intervening cause
n.
An independent event that occurs between a wrongful act and an injury and changes the expected course of events so that the result is not the one that would have been predicted, thus relieving the person who committed the original wrongful act of liability for the injury. See also superseding cause

The Essential Law Dictionary. — Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. . 2008.


intervening cause
An event that occurs after a party's improper or dangerous action and before the damage that could otherwise have been caused by the dangerous act, thereby breaking the chain of causation between the original act and the harm to the injured person. The result is that the person who started the chain of events may no longer be considered responsible for damages to the injured person since the original action is no longer the proximate cause.
Category: Accidents & Injuries
Category: Representing Yourself in Court
Category: Small Claims Court & Lawsuits

Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary. . 2009.


intervening cause
A separate act or omission that breaks the direct connection between the defendant's actions and an injury or loss to another person, and may relieve the defendant of liability for the injury or loss.

Dictionary from West's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005.


intervening cause
A separate act or omission that breaks the direct connection between the defendant's actions and an injury or loss to another person, and may relieve the defendant of liability for the injury or loss.

Short Dictionary of (mostly American) Legal Terms and Abbreviations.

intervening cause
n.
   an event which occurs between the original improper or dangerous action and the damage itself. Thus, the "causal connection" between the wrong and damages is broken by the intervening cause. This is a "but for" situation, in which the intervention becomes the real reason harm resulted. The result is that the person who started the chain of events is no longer responsible and will not be found liable for damages to the injured person. Example: Fred Flameout negligently starts a wildfire by welding on his hay bailer next to a row of haystacks, some hay catches fire, and the fire spreads, heading toward the next-door ranch. However, just as the county fire department has the fire nearly contained, Peter Petrol drives his oil truck through the fireline against a fire fighter's orders and stops on the road between Flameout's property and Richard Rancher's. Sparks from the fire cause Petrol's truck to explode, sending the fire on the way to Rancher's barns and home, which burn down. Petrol's negligence is an intervening cause which gets Flameout off the liability hook. Sometimes this is called supervening cause or superseding.

Law dictionary. . 2013.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • intervening cause — In tort law, as will relieve of liability for an injury, is an independent cause which intervenes between the original wrongful act or omission and the injury, turns aside the natural sequence of events, and produces a result which would not… …   Black's law dictionary

  • intervening cause — In tort law, as will relieve of liability for an injury, is an independent cause which intervenes between the original wrongful act or omission and the injury, turns aside the natural sequence of events, and produces a result which would not… …   Black's law dictionary

  • Intervening cause — An intervening cause is a potential defense to the tort of negligence, if it is an unforeseeable, and therefore superseding intervening cause, rather than a foreseeable intervening cause.For example, if a defendant had carelessly spilled gasoline …   Wikipedia

  • intervening cause — A cause which supersedes a prior wrong as the proximate cause of an injury by breaking the sequence between the prior wrong and the injury. Mahoney v Beatman, 110 Conn 184, 146 A 762, 66 ALR 1121. The test of the sufficiency of an intervening… …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • efficient intervening cause — see cause 1 Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996 …   Law dictionary

  • dependent intervening cause — n. In common law, something that happens in between a defendant’s action and its result that occurs as a normal and predictable response to the defendant’s action; usually a dependent intervening cause does not break the chain of causation and… …   Law dictionary

  • independent intervening cause — A conclusory label used by the common law to refer to a cause that intervenes between the defendant s behavior and a given result such that it is regarded as unfair to hold the defendant responsible for the result. See also intervening cause …   Black's law dictionary

  • independent intervening cause — A conclusory label used by the common law to refer to a cause that intervenes between the defendant s behavior and a given result such that it is regarded as unfair to hold the defendant responsible for the result. See also intervening cause …   Black's law dictionary

  • cause — 1 n 1: something that brings about an effect or result the negligent act which was the cause of the plaintiff s injury ◇ The cause of an injury must be proven in both tort and criminal cases. actual cause: cause in fact in this entry but–for… …   Law dictionary

  • efficient intervening cause — An intervening efficient cause is a new and independent force, which breaks the causal connection between the original wrong and the injury, and is the proximate and immediate cause of the injury. Thus, the original negligent actor is not liable… …   Black's law dictionary

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