In determining whether a defendant’s tortious conduct was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s damage, the court must view the general set of circumstances not the particular facts of the case.  So, here, the defendant escrow company’s negligence in closing an escrow for the sale of a house led foreseeably to the seller’s incurring damages in the form of attorney fees incurred in litigation to clear title and avoid eviction and in paying rent while he remained on the premises pending rescission of the sale.  The trial court erred in excluding evidence of those damages on the ground that they resulted from the seller’s and buyer’s conduct and not the escrow companies.