DOCTRINE OF PROXIMATE CAUSE

In case an individual is injured due to someone else’s negligence, one can easily claim damages due to the negligence at the end of that individual. While suing that individual, one will have to prove that the negligence was the actual or proximate cause of the injury. Actual cause is the “cause in fact” which is very direct whereas proximate cause is a legal cause or the one that is recognized as the nearest or has the closest nexus to that injury. 

Proximate cause is an event or an activity that is nearly related to an injury that the courts assume to be the cause of that particular injury. It is not compulsory for that event to be the first one or the last one before the injury was caused, but it is the one because of which the injury was caused. Here, the onus is on the plaintiff to prove that a particular event was the proximate cause for that injury.

For example: If someone is hit by the bus, the cause of that injury is very straight forward. (actual cause)

If a driver injures another car’s driver which had its green signal by skipping the red signal causing him hurt, then he shall be responsible because he should have not skipped the signal. (proximate cause)