Also known as: legal cause
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A cause that is legally sufficient to result in liability. The law holds the actor responsible for harm when the causal sequence satisfies the requirements for imposing liability unless a defense applies.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Jeanette Jensen operated machinery without required safety guards. A worker suffered an injury traceable through the sequence of events to her conduct. The court held her subject to liability because her conduct was a legal cause of the harm.
Jillian James left a chemical spill unaddressed on a walkway. A visitor slipped and sustained burns. The sequence showed her omission produced the invasion of the visitor's protected interest, making her responsible absent any defense.
Jacqueline Juarez failed to secure a scaffold. A passerby was struck when it collapsed. The designation of her as the actor whose conduct raised the liability question turned on whether her omission was a legal cause of the injury.
Jennifer Jackson drove with defective brakes. The vehicle struck Jose Jimenez's car, causing indivisible injuries. The jury found her conduct a legal cause, satisfying the element required for liability allocation.
Jeffrey Jha blocked an exit to confine Jacqueline Juarez. The barrier indirectly led to her extended detention when she could not reach help. The act remained the legal cause even though the confinement occurred through an indirect path.
Jung BioTech released untreated effluent. The discharge reached a downstream farm and destroyed crops. The company's conduct met the condition for liability because it was a legal cause of the harm and no defense applied.
Jural cause requires that the law hold the actor responsible for the harm after the causal sequence is established. Factual cause asks only whether the conduct was a necessary antecedent. Both must be satisfied for liability.
An intervening act does not cut off liability if the original conduct remains a legal cause of the harm. The sequence must still satisfy the test that the law holds the actor responsible unless a defense applies.
Each actor whose conduct is a legal cause may be held liable for the entire harm. The plaintiff need not apportion the injury among them when division is not reasonably possible.
…14, § 426, Alabama Code 1940 which so far as pertinent reads as follows: “Trespass after warning. — Any person who, without legal cause or good excuse, enters into the dwelling house or on the premises of another, after having been warned, within six months preceding, not to do so; or any person, who, having entered into…