Opinion ID: 1608517
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Heading: Scope of Review/Issue on Appeal.

Text: Because this case reaches us on appeal from a summary judgment ruling, our task is to determine whether the record made before the district court demonstrates no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.981. We are obliged to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, giving him the benefit of every legitimate inference the evidence will bear. Walls v. Jacob North Printing Co., 618 N.W.2d 282, 284 (Iowa 2000). While negligence cases do not ordinarily lend themselves to summary adjudication, see id., summary judgment may be rendered when the material facts fail to show a causal link between the negligence and the injury. See Ruden v. Jenk, 543 N.W.2d 605, 612 (Iowa 1996). Issues of proximate cause, like negligence, are generally for the jury to resolve. Iowa R.App. P. 6.14(6)(j); Hollingsworth v. Schminkey, 553 N.W.2d 591, 597 (Iowa 1996). They may, however, be decided as a matter of law in an exceptional case. Iowa R.App. P. 6.14(6)(j); Hollingsworth, 553 N.W.2d at 597. We have observed that an exceptional case is one in which after construing the evidence in its most favorable light and resolving all doubts in favor of the party seeking to establish proximate cause, the relationship between cause and effect nonetheless is so apparent and so unrelated to defendant's conduct that no reasonable jury could conclude defendant's fault was a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries. Johnson v. Junkmann, 395 N.W.2d 862, 865-66 (Iowa 1986). The question is whether this is such an exceptional case. For the reasons that follow, we think that it is.