A carpenter was installing cabinets in a kitchen at a homeowner's house. While working, the carpenter negligently left a toolbox on the top of a crooked table without securing it. A day later, a delivery worker delivering a refrigerator bumped into the table while unloading the appliance, causing the toolbox to slide off and strike the homeowner, resulting in injury. The homeowner sues the carpenter for negligence, arguing the carpenter's actions caused the harm. Should the carpenter be held liable?
No, because the delivery worker's action of bumping the table was an intervening cause that absolves the carpenter of liability.
Yes, because the carpenter was the last person in direct control of the toolbox, making them liable for all later resulting injuries.
No, because more than 24 hours had passed between the carpenter's negligent act and the injury to the homeowner.
Yes, because the carpenter's negligence in leaving the unsecured toolbox on a crooked table was a foreseeable cause of the homeowner's injury.
The correct answer identifies the importance of both 'but for' and proximate cause in establishing liability. The carpenter's negligence (leaving the toolbox unsecured on a crooked table) satisfies the 'but for' test because the injury would not have occurred but for the carpenter's actions. However, proximate cause requires foreseeability: a defendant is only liable for harms that are foreseeable consequences of their actions. The delivery worker's actions, though independent, did not constitute an unforeseeable or superseding cause, as it is foreseeable that an unsecured toolbox might fall when the table is disturbed. Other options misunderstand either the concept of foreseeability or the relationship between actual and proximate causation.
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