Opinion ID: 1679366
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Legal CauseCivil Law

Text: Several restrictive theories have evolved in the civil law which tend to impose limits on causation for legal purposes. The theory of adequate cause was formulated by the German Von Kries at the end of the nineteenth century. P. Catala and J. Weir, Delict and Torts: A Study in Parallel, Part IV, Causation, 39 Tul.L.Rev. 701, 717 (1965); 12 F. Stone, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise Tort Doctrine § 32 (1977); A.T. von Mehren, The Civil Law System, Cases and Materials for the Comparative Study of Law, Chapter 7 at 359. In practice, adequate cause has been defined as the fact or event which is normally calculated to produce harm of the kind in question, in a given situation, as distinct from the cause which produces such harm only by reason of extraordinary circumstances. Catala and Weir, supra, at 718. Although the theory of adequate cause and even that of reasonable foreseeability have had a perceptible influence, modern French law is not committed to any particular restrictive theory. Id. at 732; See generally von Mehren, supra, p. 358. Article 1150 of the French Civil Code limits the damages payable in the case of breach of contract to the amount foreseeable at the time the contract was made. But this article applies only in the law of contract: It has no direct application to delictual responsibility. In regard to delictual responsibility, French law rejects the subjective approach to the notion of reasonable foresight. Catala and Weir, supra, at 732. At present, no kind of systemization is possible, but certain observable tendencies do exist. Id. at 735. The moral factor is important in the appreciation of causation. F.H. Lawson, Negligence in the Civil Law, p. 64 (1962). There is a clear tendency to give greater causal effect to an intentional fault than to a merely negligent fault, and to a negligent fault than to an act or circumstance where the element of fault is altogether absent. Another tendency is that of distinguishing between the consequences of a harmful act that are immediate in time, and the more remote consequences of the same act. A still further, and doubtless clearer, trend consists in distinguishing between physical harms and other forms of damage, which may be described as economic harms. Compensation for the immediate physical consequences of a harmful act extends well beyond the limits suggested by the criterion of reasonable foresight. Catala and Weir, supra, at 739. Thus, legal causation is influenced by the other two elements of civil responsibility, fault and damage. The moral element in the harmful act weighs very heavily on the thinking of the court in determining the question of causation. The court is necessarily less exigent in requiring proof of causation where great fault has been established. 12 F.Stone, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise Tort Doctrine, § 43, (1977); Comment, Proximate Cause in Louisiana, 16 La.L.Rev. 391, 401-404 (1956). The influence of damage on the causation problem is less obvious but no less probable: According to the particular facts of each case, the court takes into account the nature of the interest affected (physical, material or moral), that is to say the nature of the damage. Being only human, there is no doubt that the judges pay more or less attention, as the case may be, to the need for compensation. Catala and Weir, supra, at 739-740.