In a true Palsgraf type of case, this decision holds that the defendant’s original tortious act in failing to warn X about the dangers of rubber degradation in old tires, which led to a tire blowout and single car accident in 2004 that injured X, impairing his mobility and requiring his use of a motorized scooter did not proximately cause X’s death in 2011 when a driver of a different car failed to yield to X on his scooter, colliding with him as he crossed a pedestrian crosswalk. While the original failure to warn might have been a but-for factual cause of the 2011 traffic accident, it was not the proximate cause since the later accident was not a foreseeable result of the failure to warn and was instead caused more directly by the intervening negligence of the driver of the car in the 2011 accident.
California Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3 (Pollak, J.); March 20, 2018 (published April 12, 2018); 2018 WL 1764173