Montgomery County Personal Injury Attorney Talks About Philadelphia Personal Injury Proximate Cause

Proximate cause must be shown in every personal injury claim. Proximate cause exists if a wrongful act was a substantial factor in bringing about the plaintiff's harm. Dudley v. USX Corp., 606 A. 2d 916 (Pa. Super. 1992). Defendant's negligence need not have been the sole cause of the damage, only a substantial factor. Shippen Tp. v. Portage Tp., 575 A. 2d 157 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1990). Defendant will be liable in negligence for the full amount of damages if defendant's negligence was a substantial factor in producing the injury even though concurrent causes might have contributed to the injury. Monzo v. Com. Dept. of Transportation, 556 A. 2d 493 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1989).

Once plaintiff produces facts which lead one to reasonably conclude that defendant's actions were a substantial factor in bringing about the harm, the fact that some other cause concurs with the defendant's negligence in producing the injury does not relieve defendant from liability unless he can show that the other cause would have produced the injury independently of his negligence. City of Philadelphia v. Massantonio, 533 A. 2d 1127 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1987). Defendant's negligence is not a substantial factor if the harm would have been sustained even if the defendant had not been negligent. Henry v. McCrudden, 575 A. 2d 66 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1990).

Probable cause does not exist if it is "highly extraordinary" that the defendant's act brought about the harm. White v. Rosenberry, 271 A. 2d 341, 343 (Pa. 1970); Bell v. Irace, 619 A.2d 365, 367 (Pa. Super. 1993). The cutoff for liability comes at "the point in the causal chain when the consequence of the negligent act is no longer reasonably foreseeable". Id.