Issue: Under Missouri law, when is a defendant relieved from liability due to a intervening or superseding cause?
| Area of Law: | Litigation & Procedure, Personal Injury & Negligence |
| Keywords: | Intervening or superseding cause; Relieve a defendant of liability; Negligence |
| Jurisdiction: | Missouri |
| Cited Cases: | 969 S.W.2d 860 |
| Cited Statutes: | None |
| Date: | 11/01/2013 |
To relieve a defendant of liability, an intervening cause must also be a superseding cause. Buchholz v. Mosby-Year Book, Inc., 969 S.W.2d 860, 862 (Mo. App. E.D.1998) (“[T]he mere existence of an intervening act is not decisive. The intervening act must be a superseding cause that is independent of the original actor’s negligence and severs the connection between the original actor’s conduct and the plaintiff’s injury as a matter of law.”).
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