proximate cause

in order to warrant a finding that negligence, or an act not amounting to wanton wrong, is the proximate cause of an injury it must appear that the injury was the natural and probable consequence of the negligence or wrongful act, and that it ought to have been foreseen in the light of the attending circumstances

That which, In a natural and continuous sequence, unbrbken by a new cause, produced an event, and without which that event would not have occurred. Shear. & R. Neg. § 261.

That which, in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any new cause, produces an event, and without which the event would not have occurred. The proximate cause is that which is nearest in the order of responsible causation; Butcher v. R. Co., 37 W. Va. 180, 16 S. E. 457, 18 L. R. A. 519; Lutz v. R. Co., 6 N. M. 490, 30 Pac. 912, 16 L R. A. 819. That which stands next in causation to the effect, not necessarily in time or space but in causal relation; Pullman Palace Car Co. v. Laack, 143 111. 242, 32 N. E. 285, 18 L. R. A. 215. See Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U. S. 130, 23 L. Ed. 833; Causa Proxima Non Remota Spectatur; Negligence. PROXIMITY (Lat.). Kindred between two persons. Dig. 38. 16. 8. PROXY (contracted from procuracy, procurator). A person appointed in the place of another, to represent him. The wife of a director cannot act as his proxy; State v. Perkins, 90 Mo. App. 603; nor can another so act; Craig Medicine Co. v. Bank, 59 Hun 561, 14 N. Y. Supp. 16. The instrument by which a person is appointed so to act. The right of voting at an election of an incorporated company by proxy is not a general right, and the party claiming it hurst, 103 Pa. 134; Mc Kee y. Savings Co., 122 la. 731, 98 N. W. 609; but in Walker v. Johnson, 17 App. D. C. 144, it was held that a long continued and unbroken practice of voting by proxy will have the effect of a by-law. At common law it was allowable only by the peers of England, and that is said to be in virtue of a special permission of the king; Philips v. Wickham, 1 Faige (N. Y.) 590; by standing order in 1868, the house agreed to discontinue the practice, and resolved that two days’ notice must be given of a motion of suspension of the standing order. The practice may therefore be regarded as in abeyance; May, Pari. Pr. 370. Where there was no clause in the act of incorporation empowering the members to vote by proxy, but a by-law provided that the shareholders may so vote, it was held, in view of this by-law, that a vote given by proxy should have been received; State v. Tudor, 5 Day (Conn.) 329, 5 Am. Dec. 162. The court did not say how they would have decided had there been no su.ch by-law, but drew a clear distinction between public and moneyed corporations. A by-law prohibiting voting by proxy has been held unreasonable and invalid; People’s Home Sav. Bk. v. San Francisco, 104 Cal. 649, 38 Pac. 452, 29 L. R. A. 844, 43 Am. St. Rep. 147. In Taylor v. Griswold, 14 N. J. L. 222, 27 Am. Dec. 33, it was held that it required legislative sanction before any corporation could make a by-law authorizing members to vote by proxy. So, also, in Brown v. Com., 3 Grant, Cas. (Pa.) 209. See 2 Kent 294; In re Barker, 6 Wend. (N. Y.) 509. Stockholders of national banks may vote by proxy, hut no officer, clerk, teller, or bookkeeper of a bank may act as proxy; R. S. § 5144; many of the states have passed statutes regulating the right to vote by proxy. A vote by the proxy binds the stockholder, whether exercised in his interest or not, to the same extent as if the vote had been cast in person; Mobile & O. R. Co. v. Nicholas, 98 Ala. 92, 12 South.,723; Synnott v. Loan Ass’n, 117 Fed. 379, 54 C. C. A. 553. Where a proxy was to A, “or in his absense to B,” and B acted, though A was present, the act was upheld, no stockholder having objected, and all stockholders having “ratified in a formal way” the act of B; Com. v. Iloydhouse, 233 Pa. 234, 82 Atl. 74. A power of attorney, irrevocable for ten years, executed by joint owners of stock, is not against public policy, nor within an act providing that every proxy shall be revocable at the pleasure of the person issuing it; Hey v. Dolphin, 92 Hun 230, 36 N. Y. Supp. 627; and a by-law providing that no proxy should be voted by any one not a stockholder of the corporation is invalid under an act providing generally that stock- Cal. 649, 38 Pac. 462, 29 L. R. A. 844, 43 Am. PUBLIC. The whole body politic, or all St Rep. 147. the citizens of the state. The inhabitants In England, a stockholder who holds a of a particular place. proxy from another t stockholder, and votes This term is sometimes joined to other at a corporate meeting by a show of hands, terms, to designate those things which have counts as one person, without regard to the a relation to the public: as, a public officer, number of proxies he has; [1897] 1 Ch. 1; a public road, a public passage, a nubile 52 L. T. N. S. 846; 101 L. T. J. 327; a con- house. trary view is supported in 22 Law Mag. & A distinction has been made between the terms Rev. 46; but if proxies are held by non-mem- public and general: they are sometimes used as synonymous. The former term is applied strictly bers, every such has one vote ( aemble ); to that which concerns all the citizens and every [1897] 1 Ch. 1. It is said that proxyholders member of the state; while the latter includes a cannot demand a poll; 3 Q. B. D. 442. lesser, though still a large, portion of the commu- A stockholder is not estopped by the act nity. Greenl. Ev. $ 128. of his proxy from questioning the validity of When the public interest and its rights a meeting, because he was appointed only conflict with those of an individual, the latto act at a lawful meeting; Columbia N. Bk. ter must yield. Co. Litt. 181. See Eminent v. Mathews, 85 Fed. 934, 29 C. C. A. 491; Domain. but he is estopped as respects any irregulari-

The proximate cause is the efficient cause, the one that necessarily seta the other causes in operation. The causes that are merely incidental or instruments of a superior or controlling agency are not the proximate causes and the responsible ones, though they may be nearer in time to the result It is only when the causes are independent of each other that the nearest is, of course, to be charged with the disaster. See Blythe v. Railway Co.., 15 Colo. 333, 25 Pac. 702, 11 L. R. A. 615, 22 Am. St. Rep. 403; Pielke v. Railroad Co.., 5 Dak. 444, 41 N. W. 669; Railroad Co. v. Kelly, 91 Tenn. 699, 20 S. W. 312, 17 In R. A. 691, 30 Am. St. Rep. 902; Gunter v. Granite-ville Mfg. Co., 15 S. C. 443; Bosqui v. Railroad Co., 131 Cal. 390, 63 Pac. 682; Ætna Ins. Co. v. Boon, 95 U. S. 117, 24 L. Ed. 395; Wills v. Railway Co.., 108 Wis. 255, 84 N. W. 998; Davis v. Standish, 26 Hun (N. Y.) 615. See, also, Immediate (Cause.)

Defined under Proximate in Black's Law Dictionary.

A cause that sets another cause in operation; the efficient cause; the dominant cause.