Proximate Causation

This inquiry is not really about causality in the physical sense at all. Justice Andrews made this clear in his famous comment in Palsgraf: "What we do mean by the word ‘proximate’ is that, because of convenience, of public policy, of a rough sense of justice, the law arbitrarily declines to trace a series of events beyond a certain point. This is not logic. It is practical politics." Andrews' comment could be restated this way: whether the element of legal/proximate cause is satisfied turns on whether the defendant's negligence is sufficient linked to the plaintiff's injury to warrant holding holding the former responsible for the latter.