Tort Law: Cause in Fact
In order to establish a cause of action based on negligent conduct, or any other type of tortious conduct, the plaintiff usually must establish that the defendant’s conduct, or lack of conduct, caused the plaintiff’s claimed damages. Except in those cases in which the law holds the defendant vicariously liable for the tortious conduct of a third person, the plaintiff must show a reasonable connection between the act or omission of the defendant and the damage which the plaintiff has suffered. This element is often expressed by courts as a requirement that the defendant’s conduct be the proximate cause or legal cause of the plaintiff’s damages.
To clarify, you should properly use the terms actual causation and cause-in-fact to refer to the issue of whether there is a factual relationship between the defendant’s conduct and the plaintiff’s injuries and the terms proximate cause and legal cause to refer to the issue of whether or not a defendant should be held liable for injuries that his or her conduct has actually caused.
As a general rule, the plaintiff bears the burden of proving that his or her injuries were actually caused by the defendant.
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