Opinion ID: 3035486
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Instruction on Superseding Cause

Text: Having determined that the District Court properly submitted the issue of proximate cause to the jury, we turn to PwC’s contention that it is entitled to a new trial because the District Court refused to instruct the jury on superseding causes, a distinct causation test under New Jersey law requiring a separate instruction. A superseding cause is an event or conduct sufficiently unrelated to or unanticipated by a defendant that warrants termination of liability, irrespective of whether the defendant’s negligence was or was not a substantial factor in bringing about the harm. PwC asserts that a jury could have found that Chait’s independent and intentional misconduct, as well as failures by third parties such as the Commissioner’s independent examiners, were superseding causes of Ambassador’s injury. The Commissioner responds that PwC failed to request a proper instruction of “superseding cause” before the District Court, and thus failed to preserve the issue for appeal.
We first address the Commissioner’s assertion that PwC has waived this argument. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 51(c)(1), “[a] party who objects to an instruction or the failure to give an instruction must do so on the record, stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds for the objection.” We believe this issue was not waived. As shown in the record, PwC requested the following instruction: “If you find that plaintiff’s damages were the result of an intervening cause for which [PwC] is not responsible, then you would find that the conduct of [PwC] was not a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s damages.” (App. 419.) The District Court denied this request and adopted New Jersey Model Civil Charge 7.13 entitled “Proximate Cause,” which provides that where there is a claim of an intervening or superseding cause, Civil Charge 7.14 19 should also be charged.11 Nevertheless, the District Court did not issue Civil Charge 7.14. 12 Furthermore, the record reflects that PwC preserved this issue for appeal by objecting to the “absence of an instruction on multiple causes and intervening cause.” (App. 453.) Because Civil Charge 7.14 is very similar to PwC’s requested instruction and PwC objected to the absence of such an instruction, we conclude that PwC’s claim based on the absence of a superseding cause instruction was not waived. Thus, we turn to the merits of the District Court’s decision not to instruct the jury on superseding causes.
Superseding Causes Under New Jersey law, “the doctrine of superseding cause focuses on whether events or conduct that intervene subsequent to the defendant’s negligence are sufficiently unrelated to or unanticipated by that negligence to warrant termination of the defendant’s responsibility.” Lynch v. Scheininger, 744 A.2d 113, 125 (N.J. 2000); see also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 440 comment b (1965) (“A superseding cause relieves the actor from liability, irrespective of whether his antecedent negligence was or was not a substantial factor in bringing about the harm. Therefore, if in looking back from the harm and tracing the sequence of events by which it was produced, it is found that a superseding cause has operated, there is no need of determining whether the actor’s antecedent conduct was or was not a substantial factor in bringing about the harm.”). An intervening cause which is foreseeable or a 11 The New Jersey Model Civil Charges were revised in October 2007 and these sections are now numbered 6.13 and 6.14 respectively. 12 Model Civil Charge 7.14 states, in part: “You must determine whether the alleged intervening cause was an intervening cause that destroyed the substantial causal connection between the defendant’s negligent actions (or omissions) and the accident/incident/event or injury/loss/harm. If it did, then [PwC’s] n e g li g e n c e w a s n o t a p r o x im a te c a u s e o f th e accident/incident/event or injury/loss/harm.” 20 normal incident of the risk created by a tortfeasor’s action does not relieve the tortfeasor of liability. See Lynch, 744 A.2d at 124 (quoting Rappaport v. Nichols, 156 A.2d 1 (N.J. 1959)). Ordinarily, the question of whether an intervening event supersedes a defendant’s liability is left to the jury for its factual determination. Id. However, where the evidence does not suggest any superseding or intervening cause, it is improper for the trial court to instruct the jury and permit the jury to speculate that one existed. See O’Brien v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 279 A.2d 827, 831 (N.J. 1971). As noted above, the District Court found that PwC failed to provide evidence that intervening events were “sufficiently extraordinary or so clearly unrelated to the antecedent negligence that imposition of liability would be unreasonable.” (App. 144 (quotation omitted).) We agree. However egregious Chait’s conduct may have been, we cannot conclude on the record before us that the evidence presented at trial indicates that his conduct was so unrelated to PwC’s negligent conduct that it would have extinguished PwC’s liability. In our review of the record, we are satisfied that the District Court properly omitted such an instruction.