No matter how many times practitioners read tort cases, the chain-reaction automobile accidents, or accidents similarly posing proximate cause issues, challenge us (or, at the very least, me).  The Appellate Division, Second Department’s decision in Ali v. Daily Pita Bakeries is just such a case.   

The appellant made a U-turn in front of the automobile in which the plaintiff was a passenger.  The plaintiff testified that the automobile in which he was a passenger stopped before hitting the appellant.  The defendant Daily Pita Bakeries rear-ended the automobile in which the plaintiff was a passenger.  The Court concluded that questions of fact existed regarding the appellant’s negligence, the negligence was not the proximate cause of the  accident.  The Court stated: "since the plaintiff testified that the vehicle occupied by him successfully stopped and "never hit" the appellant’s vehicle, the appellant’s negligence, if any, was not a proximate cause of the accident."

It’s actually interesting to analyze these cases to determine where the negligence is the proximate cause and where the negligence merely furnished the condition for the accident.