causa proxima non remota spectatur

The maxim is used mainly in insurance law. An insurer is liable only if the loss was proximately caused by a peril insured against. “Proximate” does not mean nearest in time; it means the dominant or effective cause. In Leyland Shipping a torpedoed ship reached harbour and later sank in a storm; the torpedo, not the weather, was held the proximate cause.

The same idea appears in tort and contract as part of remoteness of damage, but there the tests are foreseeability and the rule in Hadley v. Baxendale, not this maxim alone. Indian courts apply the maxim in marine and fire insurance claims.

Example

Since the fire, an insured peril, was the causa proxima of the damage, the insurer cannot escape liability by pointing to the earlier short circuit.

In Indian law

• Section 55(1), Marine Insurance Act, 1963 (insurer liable for any loss proximately caused by a peril insured against)
• Leyland Shipping Co. v. Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society (House of Lords, 1918): proximate means dominant in efficiency, not last in time

See also

remoteness of damage · insurable interest · novus actus interveniens

Read more in the study notes

• Risk, causa proxima and loss minimisation (Insurance Law)
• Fire insurance (Insurance Law)