Legal Definitions - dependent intervening cause

Definition: A cause of an accident or injury that happens between the defendant's behavior and the harmful outcome, but does not change the defendant's responsibility. It is a type of intervening cause that does not relieve the wrongdoer of liability.

Example: A driver hits a pedestrian who is crossing the street. The pedestrian is injured and taken to the hospital. While in the hospital, the pedestrian develops an infection due to the hospital's negligence. The infection is a dependent intervening cause because it happened after the accident, but it does not change the driver's liability for hitting the pedestrian.

This example illustrates that even though the hospital's negligence caused harm to the pedestrian, the driver is still responsible for the initial injury caused by hitting the pedestrian.