- 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 otherwise have followed and which could not have been reasonably anticipated. Kopriva v. Union Pacific R. Co., 592 P.2d 711, 713.An act of an independent agency which destroys the causal connection between the negligent act of the defendant and the wrongful injury; the independent act being the immediate cause, in which case damages are not recoverable because the original wrongful act is not the proximate cause. An "intervening efficient cause" is a new and independent force which breaks the causal connection between the original wrong and injury, and itself becomes direct and immediate cause of injury. Phillabaum v. Lake Erie & W. R. Co., 315 111. 131, 145 N.E. 806, 808.In criminal law, a cause which comes between an antecedent and a consequence; it may be either independent or dependent, but in either case it is sufficient to negate criminal responsibility.See also intervening act+ intervening causeThat occurrence which comes between the initial force or occurrence and the ultimate effect.See also intervening act
Black's law dictionary. HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK, M. A.. 1990.