What is proximate clause in insurance?
Asked by: Frieda Torp | Last update: January 12, 2026Score: 4.9/5 (41 votes)
What is proximate cause in insurance with an example?
Example: If a policyholder left a window open (remote cause) during a rainstorm, and the rainwater entered the house causing damage, the proximate cause would still be the storm, not the open window.
How do you explain proximate cause?
The actions of the person (or entity) who owes you a duty must be sufficiently related to your injuries such that the law considers the person to have caused your injuries in a legal sense. If someone's actions are a remote cause of your injury, they are not a proximate cause.
What is an example of actual cause and proximate cause?
Actual cause, also known as “cause in fact,” is straightforward. When a bus strikes a car, the bus driver's actions are the actual cause of the accident. Proximate cause means “legal cause,” or one that the law recognizes as the primary cause of the injury.
What are the types of proximate cause?
- Foreseeability.
- Direct causation.
- Risk enhancement/causal link.
- Harm within the risk.
- The "Risk Rule"
What is proximate cause?
What is the proximate cause of a claim?
Modern Applications of Proximate Cause
In today's claims market, proximate cause serves as a guiding principle in determining the validity and coverage of insurance claims. It refers to the dominant or most immediate cause of loss or damage, irrespective of incidental or remote factors contributing to the event.
What is an example of a proximate cause of behavior?
Example: a female animal chooses to mate with a particular male during a mate choice trial. A possible proximate explanation states that one male produced a more intense signal, leading to elevated hormone levels in the female producing copulatory behaviour.
How to prove proximate cause?
Another popular test for proximate cause is the substantial factor test – if the action was a substantial factor in the harm, then it will be deemed a proximate cause, while remote or trivial factors will only be actual causes rather than proximate causes.
What is an example of a proximate cause of conflict?
And identify the specific sources of conflict. Proximate causes are those events, which may trigger violence for example, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, which was the immediate cause of the beginning of the First World War.
Which legal term means the proximate cause?
Proximate Cause (Foreseeability): The most common test of proximate cause under the American legal system and, of course, in California, is foreseeability. It determines if the harm resulting from an action was reasonably able to be predicted...it is usually used in respect to the type of harm.
What is another word for proximate cause?
88 other terms for proximate cause. immediate cause. n. direct cause. intervening cause.
Can there be more than one proximate cause?
There may be more than one proximate cause of an event (3). The italicized parts of this definition are changed to reflect the defendant's name and specific specialty or area of practice. This definition sets forth the 2 elements of proximate cause, cause in fact and foreseeability.
Can an insane person cannot be held liable for a tort?
Insane persons are commonly held liable for their intentional torts. While there are very few cases, the same rule has been applied to their negligence.
What is the meaning of proximate cause with regard to an accident?
In tort law or personal injury law, “proximate causation” refers to the primary cause of an injury. In a personal injury lawsuit, you as the plaintiff can establish proximate cause by showing that your injury was sufficiently closely related to the defendant's conduct that liability should attach.
What does subrogation mean?
When you file a claim, your insurer can try to recover costs from the person responsible for your injury or property damage. This is known as subrogation. For example: Your insurance company pays your doctor for your treatment following an auto accident that someone else caused.
What is indemnity in insurance terms?
Indemnity is one party's promise to compensate another for potential losses or damages, while indemnification is the act of compensating another party after a loss has occurred. An indemnity contract protects the indemnitee from liability and holds them harmless.
What is an example of a proximate cause in insurance?
Proximate Cause Insurance Example
There is a connection between driving under the influence of alcohol and the accident. One of the customers falls because the workers didn't clean up the spill that had occurred on the floor. They suffer a wrist fracture.
What best describes a proximate cause?
Proximate cause refers to an event or action that is so closely related to an injury that the law considers it to be the primary cause of the injury. While the proximate cause typically leads directly to the injury, it may do so via one or more intervening causes.
What is a proximate cause in a contract?
Proximate cause refers to the primary event or series of events that directly leads to an insured loss. It is the direct cause that sets in motion a chain of events, which ultimately results in the damage or loss covered by an insurance policy.
How do you determine proximate cause?
6 Therefore, proximate cause, whether in tort or criminal law,7 should be determined by having the court conclude, assuming causation, whether or not the consequences come within the limits of responsibility under the rule violated, and then having the jury determine if causation did in fact exist.
What is the eggshell skull rule?
This rule holds that a tortfeasor is liable for all consequences resulting from their tortious (usually negligent) activities leading to an injury to another person, even if the victim suffers an unusually high level of damage (e.g. due to a pre-existing vulnerability or medical condition).
What are the two components of proximate cause?
Proximate cause under Washington law recognizes two elements: cause in fact and legal causation. See Christen v. Lee, 113 Wn. 2d 479, 507, 780 P.
What are the direct consequences of proximate cause?
The term “proximate cause” means a cause which in a direct sequence [unbroken by any superseding cause,] produces the [injury] [event] complained of and without which such [injury] [event] would not have happened.
What is a proximate question?
Tinbergen's (1963) proximate questions include understanding the mechanisms (causation) and development (ontogeny) of behavior, while the ultimate questions include understanding the function (adaptive significance) and evolution of behavior.
What are proximate cause issues?
Proximate cause is when one action leads to another and creates legal liability. It is the cause and effect between an action and a foreseeable result. However, it is more than just one thing leading to another. It is when a consequence is the reasonably expected result of an action.