Also known as: superseding events · superseding cause
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An intervening act or force that by its operation after the defendant's negligent conduct prevents the defendant from remaining liable for harm that the negligence substantially contributed to producing.
Summit Gas delayed repairs on a known leak beneath a residential block. Chase attached a grill without permission during a festival and triggered an explosion intensified by the leak that injured Marion. The court treats Chase's hookup as an intervening force that directly produced the blast and severs Summit Gas's liability.
The museum placed an unanchored sculpture in a high-traffic atrium despite knowing school groups visited weekly. Isabel allowed students to push against the sculpture and it toppled onto Hal. The court holds that Isabel's lapse was a normal consequence of the situation the museum created and does not relieve the museum of liability.
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The museum ignored repeated warnings that a sculpture rested on an unstable pedestal. During a fundraiser a child bumped the pedestal while playing and the sculpture struck Monica. The court finds the child's bump did not produce harm different in kind from the risk the museum's negligence created and holds the museum liable.
Birch Media continued selling unsecured glass bottles in the balcony after security warned of intoxicated patrons leaning and jostling. Henry entered through an unrepaired door and dropped a bottle onto Norman below. The court concludes that Birch Media's conduct increased the foreseeable risk of such intervention and therefore the drop does not supersede liability.
Luis waved an unloaded pistol at teenagers suspected of shoplifting inside a busy store. One teen panicked and sprinted into the street where a car struck and killed him. The court holds that the teen's flight was a normal response to the fear Luis created and therefore does not constitute a superseding cause.
Lena ordered all emergency exits chained shut at a crowded festival in violation of safety rules. When a small fire started onstage patrons rushed the exits and one was trampled to death. The court determines that the normal efforts of patrons to escape the threatened harm do not supersede Lena's liability.
An intervening act qualifies as superseding only when it prevents the original actor from remaining liable for harm that the antecedent negligence substantially contributed to producing. The analysis examines whether the intervention was a normal consequence of the risk created or instead extraordinary in kind or manner.
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No. The fact that the intervening act is itself wrongful or negligent does not make it superseding if the original conduct created or increased the foreseeable risk of that type of intervention and remained a substantial factor in the harm.
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Normal efforts by the victim or a third person to avert threatened harm are not superseding. The original actor remains liable because those efforts are treated as within the scope of the risk the negligence created.
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Foreseeability is central. When the defendant's negligence creates a situation in which the type of intervention that occurred was a normal or increased risk, the intervention does not supersede even if it was itself negligent or criminal.
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…have been described. They contend that the actions of Blake, the driver of the pickup truck, constituted both an intervening and superseding cause which relieves them of criminal responsibility for Stafford’s death. There is, of course, no statutory provision regarding the effect of an intervening cause of injury as it relates to the…