Opinion ID: 2240281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Jury Instructions on Proximate Cause

Text: In this case, the circuit court did not give the jury the second paragraph of Illinois Pattern Jury Instruction (IPI), Civil, No. 12.04 (2d ed. 1971). The appellate court held that this was error. We are asked to determine whether the circuit court erred by not giving the second paragraph. The instruction states in whole: More than one person may be to blame for causing an injury. If you decide that a [the] defendant[s] was [were] negligent and that his [their] negligence was a proximate cause of injury to the plaintiff, it is not a defense that some third person who is not a party to the suit may also have been to blame. [However, if you decide that the sole proximate cause of injury to the plaintiff was the conduct of some person other than the defendant, then your verdict should be for the defendant.] The notes on use of this instruction state: The second paragraph should be used only where there is evidence tending to show that the sole proximate cause of the occurrence was the conduct of a third person. In this case such a theory cannot intelligently be argued. In the case at bar, the evidence clearly established that the decedent would not have been electrocuted but for the all-metal construction of the boat. Therefore, the trial judge was correct in giving only the first paragraph of the proximate cause instruction, since the second paragraph is irrelevant to this case.