Opinion ID: 1916048
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Causation in Fact

Text: Appellant further contends that the trial court erroneously failed to instruct the jury on the issue of causation in fact. When evaluating a claim that the trial court erroneously instructed the jury, the charge must be viewed in its entirety. Riddle Memorial Hospital v. Dohan, 504 Pa. 571, 475 A.2d 1314 (1984); Olsen v. Dietz, 347 Pa.Super. 1, 500 A.2d 125 (1985). Unless the charge as a whole can be demonstrated to have caused prejudicial error, we will not reverse for isolated inaccurracies. Riddle Memorial Hospital v. Dohan, 504 Pa. 571, 576, 475 A.2d 1314, 1316 (1984). Moreover, a trial court has wide latitude as to the manner in which it charges the jury. Any particular language may be used as long as it fully and adequately conveys the applicable law. Seewagen v. Vanderkluet, 338 Pa.Super. 534, 488 A.2d 21 (1984). The trial court's charge to the jury on the issue of causation was as follows: Now I said to you before that one of the essential elements of the plaintiff's claim and of the defendant's defense of contributory negligence is what is known as legal cause. It is not enough for someone simply to be negligent in a vacuum in the abstract. That negligence must be the legal cause of the accident. To illustrate what I mean, let's suppose you're driving your car down the highway. And you are two hundred feet from the intersection. And you go over the center line of the highway and drive in the direction of oncoming traffic. But there's no oncoming traffic there, but there's an accident that happens up at the intersection. By going over the center line of the highway, your negligence  you are negligent. But did your negligence cause the accident up at the intersection? Of course not. Your negligence cannot be considered under those circumstances to be a substantial factor in bringing about the intersection accident. Your negligence had absolutely nothing to do with that accident. And therefore, because your negligence is not a legal cause, that is a substantial factor in bringing about that intersection accident, nobody can say that you are responsible, that is liable, for the damages caused at the intersection accident. In this case, the plaintiff has the burden of proving that the defendant was negligent in the manner in which the skating rink was designed and controlled and that such negligence was a legal cause of the accident. . . . In order for negligence or contributory negligence to be a legal cause of an accident, it merely must be a substantial factor in bringing about the accident. . . . A substantial factor is a real factor, not an imaginary one or a fanciful one, but simply a real factor in bringing about the accident that occurred in this case. N.T., 9/26/86, pp. 79-81. We find this instruction to be sufficient. While the court did not explicitly define the term causation-in-fact, the example it gave of a car crossing the center line of the road embodies the essentials of the concept. This example correctly conveyed the necessary factual or commonsensical meaning of the causation requirement, i.e., that it must be shown that but for the defendant's negligent act or failure to act, the plaintiff's harm would not have occurred. Given the traditional deference given to a trial court's choice of language in conveying to the jury often complex legal theories in an effort make the jury truly understand them, we find no error in this trial court's decision to eschew confusing terminology and instead to instruct via example. The cases appellant cites do not mandate a contrary result. Appellant seeks to demonstrate that Pennsylvania law requires a separate instruction expressly regarding but-for causation. We are aware of no Pennsylvania precedent containing this requirement. In fact, the better view regards causation-in-fact as simply part of the overriding requirement that the defendant's conduct be a substantial factor in bringing about the harm, as to which the trial court here fully instructed the jury. See Pachesky v. Getz, 353 Pa.Super. 505, 510 A.2d 776 (1986); Whitner v. Lojeski, 437 Pa. 448, 263 A.2d 889 (1970) (plurality).