Associate in Claims (AIC) 30 – Claim Handling Principles and Practices Practice Test

Causation is the link that connects the breach of duty to the injury or loss suffered. In negligence, you have to prove that the breach actually caused the harm, and that the harm was a foreseeable result of that breach (often considered as actual cause and proximate/legal cause). If the breach occurred but the harm wouldn’t have happened but for that breach, or if the harm isn’t a natural result of the breach, liability fail because the connection is missing.

For example, if someone fails to repair a frayed wire (breach) and a fire results causing damage (harm), causation would be shown if the fire directly resulted from that defective wire. Without that causal link, the breach doesn’t tie to the harm, even though a breach and damages might exist. The other elements—duty (the obligation to act with reasonable care), and damages (the actual losses suffered)—describe parts of the claim, but they don’t establish the necessary link between the breach and the harm.