When Can A Person Be Liable For the Acts of Another?
The short answer is when the chain of causation is unbroken. That means that if a person or business acts negligently then they are responsible for all the foreseeable injuries that occur as a result of their initial negligence.
For example, if you act negligently by leaving your keys in your car with the motor running and door open, then the subsequent theft of your car is forseeable. Since that act is foreseeable, then you are liable for any injuries that occur as a result of your car’s theft. If the thief speeds off in your car and injures someone in a traffic accident, you are responsible for the injuries caused by the thief who stole your car.
Another example is if you ran a red light in your car and injured someone, then you are liable for all the foreseeable injuries that result from your negligence even if they occur after the traffic accident. Perhaps the person you injured required medical care. If a doctor provided negligent medical care to the person you injured while the doctor was treating that person for the injury you caused, then you are liable for the injury caused by the doctor’s negligence.
Sometimes, you can be liable for the acts of another person, and sometimes you can be liable for secondary injuries that you did not directly cause. If you negligently fired a shotgun during a hunting trip and injured your hunting companion, you would be liable for any injuries caused by infection of the injured person’s wounds. You would be liable because infection is a natural, foreseeable consequence of injuring the skin so as to expose wounds to bacteria.
These examples are just a sampling of the many ways in which a person can be held liable for the acts of another. The general test is if the second injury is a foreseeable result of the initial negligence. In other words, if the initial negligence made it more likely that the second injury would occur, then the initially negligent person is liable not only for the injury they directly caused but also the injury that another person or thing caused.
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