Section 3.7.18 Causation Is Also an Essential Element of the Claim

• Library: Construction Law Practice Manual 3rd Edition 2016

§ 3.7.18 Causation Is Also an Essential Element of the Claim

It has long been the law in Arizona that negligence is not actionable unless it is the proximate cause of the claimant’s injury.¹⁶⁶ The oft-repeated definition of proximate cause is “that which, in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, produces an injury, and without which the injury would not have occurred.”¹⁶⁷ The plaintiff has the burden to prove both causation in fact and proximate cause for the alleged injuries.¹⁶⁸ Negligence is not actionable in the abstract.¹⁶⁹ A party may prove proximate cause by presenting facts from which a causal relationship may be inferred, but the jury is not permitted to speculate on causation.¹⁷⁰ If proximate cause cannot be proved by the claimant, the design professional is not liable even if it was negligent.¹⁷¹

While the determination of causation is usually a question for the jury, courts in Arizona may determine causation when there is “no reasonable chance or likelihood that conclusions of...