MEDICAL,USA: Legal term dealing with the concept of cause-and-effect relationships (e.g., would an injury have resulted from a particular accident?).
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That event that, in an unbroken sequence, results in direct physical loss under an insurance policy. For example, wind is the proximate cause of loss when a windstorm blows out a window that in turn topples a lit candle that sets fire to a structure and burns it down.
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US: The dominating cause of loss or damage; an unbroken chain of events between the occurrence and damage.
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The immediate or actual cause of loss under an insurance policy. See Also: “Cause, Proximate.”
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UK: The insurer is liable only for loss proximately caused by an insured peril not loss caused by an excepted or uninsured peril. It is the dominant cause not the remote cause. The insurer will be liable if the sequence between an insured peril and the loss is unbroken (i.e one link in the chain is the natural and probable consequence of the previous link). If the initial cause in an unbroken chain is an excepted peril, the excepted peril is the proximate cause notwithstanding that it triggers an insured peril. As well as operating sequentially with other perils, the insured peril may run as a concurrent cause with other perils. Pawsey v. Scottish Union and National (1907) sets out a classic definition. See IMMEDIATE CAUSE; INTERVENING CAUSE; LAW STRAW CASES.