Opinion ID: 2432554
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Ill-Defined Second Element in Producing Cause

Text: Causal analysis in negligence differs from that in other areas of the law, notably products liability and deceptive trade practices. The negligence cause of action is itself designed to hold parties responsible for the failure to exercise due care when reasonable persons would foresee that injuries of the type incurred would result from that failure. Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 281-283 (1965); see also William Powers, Jr., Border Wars, 72 TEX.L.REV. 1209, 1210 (1994) (If people do not act reasonably, [the negligence] norm demands that they should then compensate those whom they foreseeably injure.). Accordingly, a foreseeability element in the causal analysis establishes a limit to liability for the consequences of negligent acts. William Powers, Jr., Texas Products Liability Law 6-17.1 (2d ed. Issue 1 1993). Because other causes of action are not limited to only foreseeable injuries, Texas law distinguishes between classes of cases, for example, products liability and deceptive trade practices cases, by using the term producing cause rather than proximate cause. The fact that a court may not be directly concerned with foreseeability as an element in the causal analysis does not, however, undermine the soundness of a two-prong approach to causation in other contexts. It is still useful to inquire first into the factual basis for causation: would the injury have occurred in the absence of the alleged misconduct? If the answer to this inquiry is yes, then the court should still consider whether the policies or principles at the heart of a cause of action dictate a further limitation on liability. Although we have not written as much about this second policy-based limitation on liability inherent in producing cause, this approach is well-established in Texas jurisprudence. Texas courts have tended to address causation in short, pithy definitions, commonly describing the distinction between proximate cause and producing cause as follows: Producing cause is equal to proximate cause without the element of foreseeability. See, e.g., Peeler v. Hughes & Luce, 868 S.W.2d 823, 828 (Tex.App.Dallas 1993, writ granted). But this description is unfortunately intertwined with the following shorthand definition: [P]roximate cause consists of two elements: (1) cause in fact, and (2) foreseeability. See, e.g., Missouri P. R.R. Co. v. American Statesman, 552 S.W.2d 99, 103 (Tex.1977). If both of these formulations are correct, we must conclude that producing cause is equal to cause-in-fact. This shorthand formulation is problematic for two reasons. First, it obscures the fact that in cases in which producing cause is the applicable standard, the causal analysis includes policy-based considerations. Second, by forcing more policy-based considerations into the cause-in-fact analysis in producing cause cases, this formulation creates a distinction between cause-in-fact in producing cause cases and cause-in-fact in proximate cause cases. At best, using different definitions for the same term is unnecessarily complex and prevents lawyers and jurists from drawing upon precedents in one body of law and applying them in another. At worst, it obscures the true basis for judgments, resulting in confusion and leading to erroneous decisions. A better approach is to apply a uniform definition of cause-in-fact and allow the distinction between producing and proximate cause to be made in the development of the policy-based second part of the causal analysis. If one accepts the wisdom of maintaining a two-prong approach to causation in producing cause, the further task remains of defining the second prong in a clear and workable manner. Our failure to delineate this factor has not gone unnoticed. See, e.g., Powers, supra, at 6-2 (2d ed. Issue 0 1992) (Texas courts have given little attention to its precise contours.). Additionally, our oft-repeated definition of producing cause is unnecessarily vague, stating only that producing cause is: [a]n efficient, exciting or contributory cause, which, in a natural and continuous sequence, caused in whole or in part the occurrence or injuries, if any, in question, and but for said cause the occurrence or injuries would not have occurred. General Motors Corp. v. Hopkins, 548 S.W.2d 344, 351 n. 3 (Tex.1977) (emphasis added). Other authorities may help give content to this broad definition. Prosser and Keeton's discussion of proximate cause provides one reference that can be usefully applied to producing cause: In a philosophical sense, the consequences of an act go forward to eternity, and the causes of an event go back to the dawn of human events, and beyond. But any attempt to impose responsibility upon such a basis would result in infinite liability for all wrongful acts, and would set society on edge and fill the courts with endless litigation. As a practical matter, legal responsibility must be limited to those causes which are so closely connected with the result and of such significance that the law is justified in imposing liability. Some boundary must be set to liability for the consequences of any act, upon the basis of some social idea of justice or policy. Keeton et al, supra, § 41, at 264 (footnote omitted). In setting the limits to producing cause in products liability law, we must examine the underlying purposes of that branch of tort law. When this Court adopted Section 402A of the Restatement (Second), see McKisson v. Sales Affiliates, Inc., 416 S.W.2d 787, 788-90 (Tex.1967), we implicitly accepted the view that one purpose of products liability law is that the burden of accidental injuries caused by products intended for consumption be placed upon those who market them, and be treated as a cost of production against which liability insurance can be obtained. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A cmt. c (1965). As one of the framers of modern products liability law, Judge Roger Traynor, has also observed, primary goals of strict products liability are: (1) to spread the losses caused by defective products from the individual to the public at large; and (2) to deter the manufacture of dangerously defective products. See Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co., 24 Cal.2d 453, 150 P.2d 436, 441 (1944) (Traynor, J., concurring). Prosser and Keeton identify three policies: (1) to place the burden of loss on those who can spread the costs of injuries to all purchasers; (2) to promote accident prevention; and (3) to relieve injured consumers of the often impossible burden of proving a manufacturer's negligence. Keeton et al., supra, § 98, at 692-93. Based on these policies, one logical limit for liability in product liability cases would be to restrict recovery to those damages caused by the use of the defective product and to those damages against which manufacturers can feasibly insure. In determining which damages are caused by the use of the defective product, courts should draw upon precedents in negligence law that define the importance of intervening human causes, see, e.g., City of Austin v. Schmedes, 154 Tex. 416, 279 S.W.2d 326 (1955), that define the scope of liability to potential rescuers, see, e.g., Snellenberger v. Rodriguez, 760 S.W.2d 237 (Tex.1988), and that determine when another's conduct is the sole cause of the injury. See, e.g., Dallas Ry. & Terminal Co. v. Bailey, 151 Tex. 359, 250 S.W.2d 379 (1952). These policy-based limitations can be refined even further in specific applications. In design defect cases, for example, the determination of a product's defectiveness depends on a hindsight test that evaluates the product defect in relation to the dangers known at the time of trial. See General Motors Corp. v. Hopkins, 548 S.W.2d 344 (Tex.1977). In determining causation in this context, it is appropriate to limit liability cases to those injuries which would have been foreseeable had this knowledge been available at the time the product was sold. Similarly, in warning defect cases, when a failure to warn constitutes a defect only if the risk was reasonably foreseeable when the product was sold, see General Motors Corp. v. Saenz, 829 S.W.2d 230 (Tex.App.Corpus Christi 1991), rev'd on other grounds, 873 S.W.2d 353 (Tex.1993), it is appropriate to limit liability to foreseeable injuries, essentially applying the causation standard for negligence. Obviously, one cannot sketch all the contours of this element of producing cause in a single opinion. Nonetheless, there is ample precedent in Texas law to conclude that a policy-based aspect of causation in products liability law should and does exist.