[Rhodes22-list] Proximate Cause

[Bill Effros]

Wally,

You have joined the fascinating legal argument regarding "proximate 
cause".  Who gets to sue who about what.  How far back can you look to 
say what caused an injury.  We will be hearing a lot about it.  The 
insurance companies will say the Federal Government didn't build the 
levees well enough, and people whose homes were flooded are not entitled 
to hurricane damage compensation because the hurricane did not cause the 
damage.  The Federal Government will say the hurricane was the proximate 
cause of the damage, and the insurance companies should pay.  The fact 
that the Federal Government didn't even know their levees had been 
breached after the hurricane will weaken the Federal Case.

Somebody will pay.  Who do you think it should or will be?

The same issues were hashed out regarding proximate cause with regard to 
the World Trade Center.

Interestingly, one of the famous proximate cause precedents involves boats:

"In the two famous /Kinsman Transit/ cases from the 2nd Circuit 
(exercising admiralty 
<http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Admiralty&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1> 
jurisdiction over a New York incident), it was clear that mooring a boat 
improperly could lead to the risk of a boat drifting away and crashing 
into another boat, and that both boats could crash into a bridge, which 
collapsed and blocked the river, and in turn, the wreckage could flood 
the land adjacent to the river, as well as prevent any traffic from 
traversing the river until it had been cleared. But under proximate 
cause, the property owners adjacent to the river could sue (/Kinsman 
I/), but not the owners of the boats or the cargoes which could not move 
until the river was reopened (/Kinsman II/)."

So how would you call it?

Bill Effros

Wally Buck wrote:

>> The Hurricane did not breach the levee in New Orleans, and the 
>> airplanes hitting the World Trade Center did not cause the towers to 
>> collapse.
>
>
> Bill,
>
> OK, if you say so .....
>
>
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