Proximate cause in insurance pdf

If the cause is an insured one, the claim is payable, if the cause is uninsured or excepted the claim is not payable. Find out what you need to know in this video tutorial. Proximate cause international journal of law management. It is important that courts establish proximate cause in personal injury cases because not everyone nor everything that causes an injury can be held legally liable. Property insurance how is proximate cause determined in a fire insurance policy. But the court asserted that doing so was not a novel or unexpected extension of the law because the efficient proximate cause rule had never been limited to specific types of insurance. May 05, 2017 no washington court had ever before applied the efficient proximate cause rule outside firstparty property coverage cases. The doctrine of proximate cause and insurance against war risks at sea. Determining the actual cause of loss or damage is therefore a.

There is not necessarily a single proximate cause of a loss. It is the same provision under the indian marine insurance act of 1963. The enigma of causation in insurance contract interpretation. Jul 02, 2019 proximate cause is the legal term used to describe the specific cause of your injuries. When a claim occurs under a general insurance policy the insurers will identity the proximate cause of the loss to ensure that the loss or damage has been caused by an insured peril but what is proximate cause and how does this affect the settlement of claims. In the context of a car accident case, the concept of proximate cause refers to the act or failure to act that was the legal cause of the auto accident, and led to all resulting injuries and vehicle damage. But besides the common law doctrine of proximate cause policy wordings generally also convey the idea of causation. The principles of insurance proximate cause discussed, the proximate cause must be identified before it is possible to decide whether the loss or damage is covered by the policy.

Proximate cause is a key principle of insurance and is concerned with how the loss or. Find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Proximate cause legal definition of proximate cause. Proximate causation in insurance law request pdf researchgate. The policyholder must demonstrate that an insured peril has caused the loss or damage and, having done so, it. It applies the principle of proximate cause as the underlying rule for determining the liability of the insurer. California courts have long adhered to an efficient proximate cause analysis when determining the availability of insurance coverage in situations where more than one event has contributed to damage. Proximate cause see other formats stop early journal content on jstor, free to anyone in the world this article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in the world by jstor.

You must prove it to the insurance company before they will offer compensation. For example, many people buy auto insurance in case they accidentally cause an accident on the road while they are driving. The nuances of these rules are explored more fully below. Proximate cause is an important principle of insurance, which helps in deciding how the loss or damage happen and whether it is the result of an insured peril or not. Proximate cause, or the latin causa proxima, relates to the cause of the loss in that the event of the peril insured against must be covered under the insurance contract policy, and the dominant cause of the event must not be excluded. Proximate cause is a key principle of insurance and is concerned with how the loss or damage actually occurred. Proximate cause is not confined to insurance law but is important to most branches of law and. The doctrine of proximate cause or causa poxima is one of the principles of insurance. The doctrine of proximate cause, which is common to all branches of insurance, must be applied with good sense so as to give effect to and not to defeat the intention. Appraisal of the concept of proximate cause of loss under the.

There are several competing theories of proximate cause see other factors. Proximate cause in marine insurance and onus of proof. The proximate cause, whether an event covered by a policy peril or an event excluded from a policy exception, is the dominant or effective or operative cause. The recent decision in midland mainline v eagle star insurance co. A cause which immediately precedes and produces the effect, as distinguished from the remote, mediate, or predisposing cause. Rules for application of proximate cause in insurance. Courts employ a set of proximate cause rules to resolve causation disputes when a property policy. Proximate cause in life insurance the efficient or effective, cause which causes the loss is called proximate cause, it is the actual cause of loss. Proximate cause is very relevant in liability cases.

The enigma of causation in insurance contract interpretation insurance policies are long, convoluted, and abstruse documents. Wherever there is a succession of causes which must have existed in order to produce. Proximate cause, or the latin causa proxima, relates to the cause of the loss in that the. In practice it is very important to study the policy wording to assess its impact on the concept of proximate cause. For an act or event to be considered a proximate cause, it does not necessarily have to directly precede a loss or begin a chain of occurrences leading to the same. Keep in mind that a negligent act is the proximate cause of an injury if the injury is the natural and probable result of the act.

Proximate cause 1 the cause having the most significant impact in bringing about the loss under a firstparty property insurance policy, when two or more. As the patent system joins other civil causes of action in implementing proximate cause, it is likely that other problems can be implemented and resolved so long as the standard is modified to. Proximate cause is a legal concept applied to limit the scope of liability in a civil or criminal action. Efficient proximate cause epc, concurrent causation cc. An act from which an injury results as a natural, direct, uninterrupted consequence and without which the injury would not have occurred. A cause intervening between the defendants negligence and the plaintiffs injury in such a way that it supersedes the effect of the defendants negligence and is regarded as the sole proximate cause of the harm. For an act to be deemed to cause a harm, both tests must be met. Proximate cause definition of proximate cause by the free. May 21, 2018 principle of proximate cause primary cause of a loss. Thus there must be insured peril and the relationship between the causation and the actual event must be ascertained,the principal of proximate cause identifies.

Proximate cause 1 the cause having the most significant impact in bringing about the loss under a firstparty property insurance policy, when two or more independent perils operate at the same time i. Everything you need to know about proximate cause in accident. Pdf some have seen the doctrine of proximate cause as an especially incoherent feature of. To answer the question, a california court will likely apply an efficient proximate cause analysis. This is where the doctrine of proximate cause helps. The proximate cause, whether an event covered by a policy. There is a general rule that applies to the burden of proof. Feb 05, 2018 the definition of the cause was under test in many cases and was mentioned clearly in the marine insurance act 1906 in its section 55 that the cause should be proximate, as follows. Dec 02, 2017 proximate cause refers to a direct cause of loss, without which the loss would not occur. The third requirement for a negligence lawsuit is proximate cause, or legal cause.

However, the present school of thought has given this doctrine the status of a principle and, therefore, nowadays it is considered to be one of the six principles of insurance, backed up by sound rules and legal dictum. The maxim causa proxima non remota spectatur is of importance. To drive this initial analysis, courts should first determine the temporal and sufficiency dimensions of each cause. Nov, 2015 section 55i of the marine insurance act of 1906 provides for the framework for all included and excluded losses under marine insurance. Proximate cause is concerned with how the actual loss or damage happened to the insured party and whether it is a result of an insured peril. The rules for application of proximate cause in insurance are as follows. The court found that because fire was the efficient proximate cause of the mudslide, the policy exclusion for damage caused by mudslide was not enforceable. In extraordinary ruling, washington supreme court applies. However, if one is insured and other causes are not expressly excluded, then the policy will respond. Proximate cause refers to the first event, or first peril, in a series of events that cause damage in an insurance claim. It is not necessarily the closest cause in time or space nor the first event that sets in motion a sequence of events leading to an injury.

The insurance policy may cover the proximate cause, but not the event that actually causes the damage, so the policy holder will not be reimbursed for his claim. The test for proximate cause determines if the injury was a reasonably foreseeable. For concurrent events fact patterns, the default rule that whichever peril is predominant, i. People often purchase liability insurance in case they are responsible for being the proximate cause of an injury or a loss. Until recent past the principle of proximate cause was not used to be considered as a principle as such. Some observations on the doctrine of proximate cause jstor. If the cause of loss peril is insured, the insurer will pay, otherwise, the insurer will not compensate. Courts employ a set of proximate cause rules to resolve causation disputes when a property policy states that it covers or excludes losses caused by a peril and there is more than one peril at work in a fact pattern. The role of acc clauses in us insurance law in particular presents controversy. When a single cause gives rise to a claim, the issue is simple. Three unruly doctrinesproximate cause, concurrent cause, and efficient proximate causecause an inordinate amount of litigation. Proximate cause synonyms, proximate cause pronunciation, proximate cause translation, english dictionary definition of proximate cause. Doctrine of proximate causethe application of commonsense.

Active, direct, and efficient cause of loss in insurance that sets in motion an unbroken chain of events which bring about damage, destruction, or injury without the intervention of a new and independent force. Proximate causation in insurance law wiley online library. Identifying the cause of loss in general insurance claims. If an independent action breaks the chain of events and sets in motion a new chain of events, this intervening cause becomes the proximate cause.